By Dana Drugmand Carbon dioxide and methane emissions from the world’s biggest fossil fuel producers have likely caused trillions of dollars in economic damages due to intensifying heatwaves over the last 30 years, according to new peer-reviewed research. The top five emitters – Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia), Gazprom (Russia), Chevron (US), ExxonMobil (US), and BP (British), respectively – are responsible for about $9 trillion in heat-related damages, according to the study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The analysis is the first to tie economic losses from extreme heat to emissions from individual fossil fuel companies, according to the study, and could bolster climate change-focused litigation against polluters.  “This work helps build the foundation for holding those who contributed most to climate harm accountable for its consequences,” said Delta Merner, lead scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Science Hub for Climate Litigation, who was not involved in this study. The study calculates global economic losses due to extreme heat stemming from the emissions of over 100 of the largest fossil fuel and cement producers, known as the carbon majors, between 1991 and 2020, concluding that the global economy would be $28 trillion – roughly the annual total U.S. GDP –  richer without the carbon majors’ greenhouse gas emissions.  The study estimates that global economic losses from intensifying heat attributable to each of these five carbon majors ranged from $1.45 trillion to over $2 trillion.