On September 20, 2025, Greenpeace USA unveiled a massive 160-foot-long visual display dubbed the “Climate Polluters Bill” in midtown Manhattan during Climate Week NYC, just ahead of the UN General Assembly and the Climate Ambition Summit. Carried by dozens of activists, the banner illustrated the estimated financial toll of climate-related disasters linked to emissions from five major fossil fuel corporations over the past decade.\n\nAccording to analysis provided to Greenpeace International by experts at the University of Delaware and Stanford University, the economic damages attributable to carbon emissions from these companies amount to over $5 trillion USD. The assessment uses the social cost of carbon (SCC) methodology, which calculates long-term financial impacts of each ton of CO₂ emitted, factoring in future damages through the year 2300. Emissions data was drawn from the Carbon Majors Database, based on public corporate reports.\n\nThe display also highlighted some of the most destructive extreme weather events of the last ten years, including wildfires, hurricanes, floods, heatwaves, and droughts—phenomena increasingly intensified by global warming. During this same period, the planet recorded its ten warmest years on record, with 2024 confirmed as the hottest, reaching approximately 1.55°C above pre-industrial levels.\n\nDespite these escalating crises, the five largest investor-owned oil and gas firms—ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, and TotalEnergies—reported combined profits nearing $800 billion between 2016 and mid-2025. This stark contrast between environmental damage and corporate gains has fueled calls for accountability.\n\nSushma Raman, Executive Director of Greenpeace USA, stated that vulnerable communities are bearing the brunt of climate disasters while fossil fuel executives reap enormous financial rewards. She emphasized that the burden of rising costs should not fall on working families and called for polluters to be held financially responsible.\n\nMads Christensen, Executive Director of Greenpeace International, urged world leaders to implement a global tax on oil and gas profits, alongside measures targeting wealth inequality and illicit financial flows. He argued that funds collected should support a just transition to renewable energy and help close the climate finance gap, particularly ahead of COP30 and ongoing discussions on a UN Global Tax Convention.\n\nThe demonstration was part of the global ‘Draw the Line’ campaign, supported by over 250,000 individuals and more than 60 organizations, advocating for the Polluters Pay Pact—an initiative demanding that fossil fuel corporations compensate for climate damages.\n— news from greenpeace.org\n\n— News Original —\nGreenpeace USA unveils giant “bill” with the economic damages brought on by five major oil and gas companies at NYC Climate Week\nThe original article reports on Greenpeace USA’s unveiling of a 160-foot-long “Climate Polluters Bill” in New York during Climate Week 2025. It states that emissions from five major oil and gas companies over the past decade are linked to $5.36 trillion in climate damage, based on social cost of carbon analysis by academic experts. The protest coincided with the UN General Assembly and Climate Ambition Summit. The article includes statements from Greenpeace leaders criticizing oil company profits amid climate disasters, notes record global temperatures, and promotes the Polluters Pay Pact. Supporting data comes from the Carbon Majors Database and company financial reports.
