By Mayank Chhaya-
Just 57 corporate and state entities account for 80% of greenhouse gas emissions, according to a major new study.
The study by Carbon Majors Database’s latest report shows that “the majority of global CO2 emissions produced since the Paris Agreement can be traced to a small group of high emitters who are failing to slow production. These 57 corporate and state entities can be linked to 80% of fossil fuel and cement CO2 emissions from 2016 through 2022.”
In terms of which entities contribute how much carbon dioxide, the report says, “Nation-state producers account for 38% of emissions in the database since the Paris Agreement, while state-owned entities account for 37%, and investor-owned companies for 25%.”
The irony of the report is that seven years after the Paris Agreement, most of these entities produced more fossil fuels and hence emissions than they did seven years before the agreement.
Coal India is at number three among the world’s leading entities producing fuels and accounting for high emissions. The report attributes Coal India 3% of the global emissions only behind Saudi Aramco leading the pack at 4.8% and Gazprom of Russia at 3.3%.
“It is morally reprehensible for companies to continue expanding exploration and production of carbon fuels in the face of knowledge now for decades that their products are harmful,” Richard Heede, who established the Carbon Majors dataset in 2013, has been quoted as saying. “Don’t blame consumers who have been forced to be reliant on oil and gas due to government capture by oil and gas companies.”
Heede’s is a fundamentally different point since he fixes the blame on the producers, including the supposedly responsible state-owned ones, rather than consumers. This approach by Carbon Majors Database has significantly changed the way the world views the cause of the rapidly worsening climate crisis.
The study shows that historically China’s coal production and consumption have contributed 14% to the global emissions, the highest of the top ten entities between 1854 and 2022. In that period, India accounted for just 1.5% at number 10.
A press release from Carbon Majors Database said, “Richard Heede’s landmark Carbon Majors research transformed the landscape of climate accountability by using the fossil fuel industry’s own reported production and operation figures to calculate and expose the true scale of its role in the climate crisis. By updating and extending that research—and making it more widely accessible and usable for researchers, decisionmakers, and litigators alike—InfluenceMap’s new Carbon Majors database will transform that landscape yet again. The Carbon Majors database makes it dramatically easier to document, calculate, and visually demonstrate the growing chasm between the urgent demands of climate reality and the continued reckless and intentional growth of oil and gas production. Critically, it enables us to track changes in corporate behavior and production across discrete and clearly defined timescales that will be relevant to investors, investigators, and litigators alike. It is a vital and powerful new tool in the work toward climate action and climate accountability.”
“The Carbon Majors research shows us exactly who is responsible for the lethal heat, extreme weather, and air pollution that is threatening lives and wreaking havoc on our oceans and forests. These companies have made billions of dollars in profits while denying the problem and delaying and obstructing climate policy. They are spending millions on advertising campaigns about being part of a sustainable solution, all the while continuing to invest in more fossil fuel extraction. These findings emphasize that, more than ever, we need our governments to stand up to these companies, and we need new international cooperation through a Fossil Fuel Treaty to end the expansion of fossil fuels and ensure a truly just transition,” Tzeporah Berman, International Program Director at Stand. earth and Chair at Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, has been quoted as saying.
