Introducing Polluters Pay Laws—a New Tool for Climate Adaptation

We are all paying the price for climate change. In monetary terms, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated that last year’s 27 weather and climate disasters amounted to nearly $182.7 billion in damages. That figure doesn’t even touch costs associated with damages to the natural environment, health care, or supply chain interruptions—nor does it include how much it would cost to prevent, through climate adaptation efforts, such destruction from occurring again. After all, such events are increasingly commonplace, and the lengthy, expensive process of rebuilding in the aftermath, along with infrastructure improvements to abate future damage, currently falls on the shoulders of state and local governments and, of course, taxpayers.  

That’s why several states across the country have introduced polluters pay legislation, also referred to as “climate superfund” bills.  

These bills aim to hold large fossil fuel companies financially accountable for a share of the local costs of responding to the climate crisis. Modeled after the federal Superfund program that deals with toxic waste sites, they seek to establish state funds to pay for a variety of climate adaptation projects. In doing so, they would not only offer some physical protection but also ease the sizable financial strain that climate pollution puts on communities.