Fossil fuels impact on weather events in the United States

This briefing by Zero Carbon Analytics examines the link between fossil fuel emissions and extreme weather events in the United States, detailing the role of the oil and gas industry in climate damages and the current state of the US energy transition.

• Attribution science has linked climate change caused by fossil fuels to numerous extreme weather events in the US, with at least 66 studies identifying connections to rain and floods (16), droughts (15), storms (11), heatwaves (six), and wildfires (six). Specifically, the July 2023 heatwave in the Southern US, which affected over 100 million people, is described as nearly impossible without human-induced climate change.
• Research by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) indicates that emissions from 88 of the largest fossil fuel and cement companies were responsible for 48% of the increase in fire-danger conditions in the region. Consequently, 37% of the area burned by forest fires in the western US and southwestern Canada since 1986, totaling 19.8 million acres, is tied to pollution from these companies.

APA

Team, Z. (2024). Fossil fuels impact on weather events in the United States. Zero Carbon Analytics. https://zerocarbon-analytics.org/insights/briefings/oil-and-gas-fuelling-extreme-weather-in-the-us/

Chicago

Team, ZCA. Fossil fuels impact on weather events in the United States. Zero Carbon Analytics, 2024. https://zerocarbon-analytics.org/insights/briefings/oil-and-gas-fuelling-extreme-weather-in-the-us/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Team |first1=ZCA |title=Fossil fuels impact on weather events in the United States |publisher=Zero Carbon Analytics |date=12 September 2024 |url=https://zerocarbon-analytics.org/insights/briefings/oil-and-gas-fuelling-extreme-weather-in-the-us/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{team2024fossil, author = {Team, ZCA}, title = {{Fossil fuels impact on weather events in the United States}}, institution = {Zero Carbon Analytics}, year = {2024}, month = sep, url = {https://zerocarbon-analytics.org/insights/briefings/oil-and-gas-fuelling-extreme-weather-in-the-us/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }