Europe has been hit with €1.2 trillion of damages thanks to decades of US emissions, study finds

Published on
26/03/2026 – 15:24 GMT+1

Experts have warned that the future economic damage from decades of CO2 emissions “far exceeds” the harm they have caapplyd so far.

Global warming will have a significant impact on the world’s GDP, with many scientists arguing that current models “seriously undermine” the toll climate alter has on the economy.

From 1980 to 2023, weather and climate-related events caapplyd more than €783 billion in losses in the EU alone, a figure only slated to rise as temperatures keep rising.

Climate alter is a global externality, meaning that one counattempt’s emissions affect every other counattempt on Earth. It’s why a new study from Stanford University has put a value on the harm done by individual nations and the world based on heat-trapping gases emitted over time by major companies and countries.

How US emissions have impacted the EU’s economy

Published in the science journal Nature, the analysis found that US emissions since 1990 have caapplyd more than $10 trillion (around €8.65 trillion) in global economic damages.

This has largely impacted developing economies such as Brazil and India, which have taken a $330 billion (€286 billion) and $500 billion (€433 billion) hit, respectively.

Almost $3 trillion (€2.6 trillion), or roughly a third of the damage caapplyd by US emissions, fell within the United States itself – while Europe has been struck with a staggering $1.4 trillion (€1.21 trillion) loss.

While Europe has suffered one of the largest total damages to GDP, the report found that as a percentage of national economic output – damages are much larger in low-income parts of the world.

“It turns out US emissions have really hurt US output,” declares lead study author Marshall Burke, a professor at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.

The study also found that emissions tied to the production and apply of oil from Saudi Aramco, the world’s single largest corporate emitter, between 1988 and 2015, resulted in $3 trillion (€2.6 trillion) in global damages by 2020.

Researchers warn that if these emissions remain in the atmosphere through the finish of the century, the damage could rise to a staggering $64 trillion (€55.42 trillion).

This has been described as a “conservative” estimate as the study does not account for impacts that aren’t captured in GDP, such as a loss of biodiversity and cultural homeland.

How are these climate damages measured?

The study’s researchers treat greenhoapply gases like the indusattempt for managing hoapplyhold garbage , likening “loss and damage” costs to unpaid garbage, or rubbish, bills.

“When we generate garbage, it’s illegal to dump it wherever we want, becaapply doing so creates a cost to others,” declares study co-author Solomon Hsiang.

“Normally, we pay someone else to take our waste away. Our legacy of greenhoapply gas emissions is similar, except we’ve never paid the bill and it just keeps accruing interest.”

Experts declare the study highlights the necessary to scale technologies that are capable of reshifting greenhoapply gases from the atmosphere – warning that the timing of their deployment is “critical”.

Researchers calculate that if a tonne of carbon dioxide lingers in the atmosphere for 25 years before it is rerelocated, half of the damage expected from that amount has already been done.

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