Is Food And Fossil Fuel Production Costing $5 Billion Per Hour In Environmental Damage?
Umoh Umoh
On December 11, 2025, an X user, @oszozudlak claimed that the environmental damage caused by food and fossil fuel production per hour cost 5 billion U.S dollars. This claim, shared on December 16, 2025 was picked from the SPOTAI platform, a disinformation tracker tool.
VERIFICATION
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, Global Environment Outlook, GEO, assessment, the combined externalities from current food systems and fossil fuel use amount to roughly 45 trillion U.S dollars yearly in environmental damage, which averages out to about 5 billion U.S dollars per hour worldwide. This figure is an estimate of hidden costs, not a measured financial transaction. It aggregates environmental impacts globally such as greenhouse gas emissions, ecosystem destruction, pollution-related health costs, nutrient runoff, and biodiversity loss, then translates these into economic terms.
These costs are borne by societies, governments, and the environment, like health costs, climate adaptation, loss of ecosystem services. Industrial agriculture and food systems are estimated to account for the largest share of the total annual cost of 20 trillion U.S dollars through emissions such as methane, nitrous oxide, land-use change, soil loss, water pollution, etc. Fossil-fuel-based energy and transport systems contribute heavily, with transport raking 13 trillion U.S dollars, while fossil fuel power costs 12 trillion U.S dollars through burning coal, oil, and gas, driving climate change, air pollution, and ecosystem damage.
These figures underline how deeply intertwined food systems, energy systems, and environmental harms are, and why UNEP argues that true costs need to be reflected in climate policy like taxes, subsidies removal.
CONCLUSION
The claim that the cost of environmental damage caused by food and fossil fuel production per hour cost 5 billion U.S dollars, is TRUE. The “5 billion dollars per hour” figure is a real estimate from a major UN report about the hidden costs of environmental damages.
