Past CO2 emissions cause cost and reduce wealth in the future. The present value of these costs measure the wealth borrowing from the future and countries differ considerably in their share and time profile of past CO2 emissions. Here we calibrate an integrated assessment model to data on past economic and climate development to estimate the social costs of carbon (SCC) to assess country-specific climate wealth borrowing by fossil and industrial-process CO2 emissions from 1950 to 2018. While historical SCC have been fairly low, they were not zero, reflecting the long-lasting impact of CO2 emissions on wealth. The USA and China are responsible for almost 40 percent of climate-wealth borrowing since 1950: the US share is 25.3 (SD:1.9) and 23.5 (SD:1.1) percent, China’s share is 12.4 (SD:1.1) and 15.1(SD:1.50) percent for the calibrated and expert-based specification of the social-discount rate, respectively.