Los Angeles County faces $12.5 billion bill to protect communities from Big Oil’s climate destruction

Protecting L.A. County residents from extreme heat, increasing precipitation, worsening wildfires, rising sea levels, and climate-induced public health threats will cost about $780 million per year through 2040, according to our new study.

Los Angeles County communities face a massive bill of at least $12.5 billion to protect themselves from the worsening impacts of climate change through 2040. 

That’s the finding of CCI’s latest study, “Los Angeles County’s Climate Cost Challenge: A $12.5 Billion Bill to Protect Communities Through 2040.” The study, which we’re releasing today in collaboration with Resilient Analytics, calculates what it will cost Los Angeles County taxpayers to protect residents and infrastructure from hotter temperatures, increasing precipitation, worsening wildfires, rising sea levels, and climate-induced public health threats. 

From overwhelming rainfall to unseasonably hot temperatures, climate-driven disasters in Southern California are growing more intense every year and it’s more important than ever for communities to invest in a growing range of climate adaptation and resilience projects. 

Even under our conservative estimate, adapting to climate change could have calamitous impacts on the budgets of Los Angeles County communities. As the climate crisis worsens, the true costs will likely be much higher.

These costs will also fall inequitably across communities. Census tracts with higher than average Black and Hispanic populations face nearly three times higher per capita costs to combat hotter temperatures compared to higher than average white populations. 

Across the country, local governments are paying for the vast majority of climate adaptation and resilience measures. Taxpayers in Los Angeles are no exception, and as climate impacts grow more destructive, the need for these adaptive measures will only become more acute. 

A more just alternative is to make the polluters most responsible for the climate crisis pay their fair share of the costs facing Los Angeles County communities. Major oil and gas companies knew for decades that their products could lead to catastrophic environmental conditions, yet they intentionally obscured climate science and misled the public, while communities in Los Angeles County and across the U.S. paid the price for their pollution. 
 
Dozens of states and communities, including the State of California and eight California municipalities, have filed lawsuits to recover the costs of climate damages from major oil companies, following the same legal framework as landmark tobacco and opioid lawsuits. Communities in Los Angeles County should consider bringing similar legal actions to hold climate polluters accountable and ensure that taxpayers aren't left to pay the bill alone. A new poll released today from Data for Progress and CCI shows that 74% of Los Angeles County voters support suing oil and gas companies to make them pay their fair share of climate costs.

We’re in a climate crisis because Big Oil companies lied about their products; it’s only right that they pay their fair share of the costs they have imposed on communities.