The lawsuit follows a summer of record-breaking 49C (120F) temperatures in California that killed more than 100 people, and comes amid growing concern that Los Angeles would have to be abandoned if the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains, which supplies most of the city’s drinking water, disappears by the end of the century, as some scientists predict.

Although no specific sum of compensation was mentioned in the lawsuit, the amount could easily be in the hundreds of millions. It is not clear how cash-strapped American carmakers could afford to pay.

California’s decision to take the lead against car emissions is all the more surprising given that California practically invented car culture, depicted in movies from American Graffiti to The Fast and the Furious. Los Angeles is the home of the TV show Pimp My Ride, Dan Neil, the Pulitzer Prize-winning motoring writer, hot-rod races and drive-thru Starbucks outlets.

Yet Bill Lockyer, the attorney-general of California, issued a declaration of war yesterday. “Vehicle emissions are the single most rapidly growing source of the carbon emissions contributing to global warming, yet the automakers have refused to act,” he said. “It is time to hold these companies responsible for their contribution to this crisis.”

The lawsuit — which brought to mind litigation against the tobacco industry over lung cancer — follows an internationally praised announcement by the Hummer-driving Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, that he wants to cut the Golden State’s carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

The target will involve stiff legislation against factories, power plants and refineries, and even tougher emissions standards for car manufacturers, which have themselves sued California, arguing that the standards are a de facto mandate on fuel economy standards, which can be set only by the federal government. Yesterday’s counter-suit from Mr Lockyer was California’s response.

It accused the car companies, which also included Toyota, DaimlerChrysler, Honda and Nissan, of creating a “public nuisance” by making vehicles that emit huge quantities of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

Many scientists argue that greenhouses gases are causing the Earth’s climate to warm, devastating agriculture in regions such as Napa Valley, where winemakers are already spraying their vines with sunscreen.

About 30 million vehicles are registered in California — 10 per cent of the national total for the US. According to California’s lawsuit, vehicles made by the “Big Six” car manufacturers emit a combined 289 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the US atmosphere every year. These gases account for more than 30 per cent of all the carbon dioxide emissions in California.

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