Just 57 oil, gas, coal, and cement producers are tied to a significant 80% of the world’s fossil CO2 emissions post the 2016 Paris climate agreement. This small but powerful group, comprising both state-run and shareholder-owned giants, stands at the forefront of the ongoing climate crisis, as identified by a report released by the Carbon Majors Database.
The Unyielding Growth of Fossil Fuel Production
Despite the global commitment to reducing greenhouse gases at the Paris Climate Summit, subsequent analysis highlights a concerning trend: an uptick in fossil fuel production and associated emissions by these major corporations and nation-states.
The Carbon Majors Database is one of the most comprehensive carbon trackers in the world. So far, its researchers have tallied a staggering 1,421 gigatons of CO2 equivalent dumped into the atmosphere all the way back from 1854 through to 2022. The database focuses on 122 key industrial producers, including private- and state-owned corporations and nation-states. Historically, the latter account for 36% of all greenhouse gas emissions tracked, while state-owned companies are responsible for 33%, and shareholder-owned 31%.
One of the strong points of this approach is that it focuses on the “producers” of fossil fuels rather than the end consumers. Although the latter are technically the ones releasing the emissions, the moral obligation rests more on the shoulders of these producers who often incentivize the consumers to use their products, be it raw fossil fuels or the energy they produce derived from such polluting sources.
Researchers found that China state coal and cement production is now the greatest emitter in history, contributing to 15.3% of all emissions from fossil fuels and cement. This is followed by the former Soviet Union, which accounts for 6.8% of these emissions. Among state-owned enterprises, the massive Saudi Aramco, the most profitable company in the world with $722 billion in profits made from 2016 through 2023, is by far the top emitter. Russia’s Gazprom, the National Iranian Oil Company, Coal India, and Mexico’s Pemex round up the list of state-owned fossil fuel corporations. Together, these companies are responsible for 10.9% of all the historical emissions from fossil fuels and cement — they’re the most CO2-emitting companies in the world.
“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,” Tzeporah Berman, international program director at the grassroots environmental organization Stand.earth, said in a statement.
Climate pledges largely ignored
Although the Carbon Majors Database tracks supercarbon producers all the way to the “ancient history” of fossil fuels, the most startling revelations concern more recent developments.
Following the 2015 Paris Agreement, over 190 nations and many corporations vowed to set themselves on a path that would unplug society from fossil fuel dependence and limit global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Nearly a decade later, we’ve seen little evidence that these declarations have been anything more than a smoke screen. If anything, the opposite is true: the world is becoming increasingly reliant on fossil fuels — and only a couple dozen actors are responsible for the brunt of the damage.
According to the Carbon Majors report, overseen by The Climate Accountability Institute, 65% of state entities and 55% of private-sector companies have scaled up production of fossil fuels. If they had followed their own words in Paris, they should have done the opposite.
Between 2016 and 2022, 57 entities including countries, state-owned enterprises, and investor-owned companies were responsible for 80% of global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and cement production, researchers found. This suggests a trend of consolidation over time. Between 1988 and 2015, 100 entities were responsible for 71 percent of the sector’s emissions.
ExxonMobil of the United States emerges as the top investor-owned emitter, contributing 3.6 gigatons of CO2 over seven years. This accounts for 1.4% of the global emissions, closely followed by other industry titans such as Shell, BP, Chevron, and TotalEnergies, each responsible for over 1% of global emissions.
In light of these findings, it’s no surprise that the International Energy Agency reported that global energy-related CO2 emissions reached an all-time high last year of 37.4 billion tons.
“It goes against clear, science-based statements from, for example, the International Energy Agency, saying there should be no new expansion of fossil fuels if we’re on a net-zero trajectory,” said Daan Van Acker, a program managed for the London-based think tank InfluenceMap.
