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A new study says the world's largest companies, especially fossil fuel giants, are responsible for $28 trillion in climate damage.

This massive number is close to the entire economy of the United States in a year. The research was done by scientists from Dartmouth College and published in the journal Nature.

The scientists looked at 111 major polluting companies and used computer models to figure out how much their emissions have heated the Earth, AP News said.

More than $9 trillion in damages were tied to just five companies: Saudi Aramco, Gazprom, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and BP.

"People often ask, 'Can we prove who caused this damage?' Now, we can," said Justin Mankin, one of the lead researchers.

He and co-author Christopher Callahan used data going back 137 years to track how much each company's pollution warmed the planet.

They found that every 1% of greenhouse gases added to the air since 1990 has led to about $502 billion in heat-related damage.

That number doesn't even include damage from storms, droughts, or floods. The damage studied was only from extreme heat caused by rising temperatures.

For example, Chevron's pollution alone raised the Earth's temperature by 0.045 degrees Fahrenheit. That may sound small, but over time and across the globe, the impact adds up fast.

Scientists Link Emissions to Hottest Days Using 1,080 Simulations

The scientists used 1,000 different simulations to see what the world might look like without those emissions.

According to CBS News, they also ran 80 more simulations to see how these emissions made the hottest days of the year even worse—and how that affected the economy.

The researchers say their method is similar to how experts connect extreme weather events to climate change, like the deadly 2021 heat wave in the Pacific Northwest.

Shell declined to comment, and other companies named in the study, like Aramco and ExxonMobil, didn't respond to questions. Still, many experts are backing the study's science.

Dr. Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London, said, "It would be good if more research teams used this method. The more people do it, the better the science gets."

So far, no major climate lawsuit has made companies pay for this kind of damage. But the researchers hope their work will help courts and lawmakers take action.

"The time for saying 'We can't tell who's to blame' is over," said Mankin. "Now we can."