A study shows that just 57 oil, gas, coal and cement producers are directly responsible for 80 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement.
According to the Carbon Majors Database compiled by world-renowned researchers, this powerful group of state-controlled companies and shareholder-owned multinational corporations is one of the leading causes of the climate crisis.
Although governments pledged to reduce greenhouse gases in Paris, the research reveals that most mega-producers increased their fossil fuel production and related emissions in the seven years after the climate agreement compared to the previous seven years.
In a database of 122 of the world’s largest historical climate polluters, researchers found that 65 percent of government organizations and 55 percent of private sector companies had increased production.
During this period, the largest contributor to emissions was ExxonMobil of the US, accounting for 1.4 percent of the global total. Shell, BP, Chevron and TotalEnergies followed, each associated with at least 1 percent of global emissions.
But the most striking trend has been the rapid increase in emissions associated with state and state-owned producers, particularly in the Asian coal sector.
Carbon Majors research is helping to change the narrative about responsibility for the climate crisis by allocating emissions to organizations that profit from extracting fossil fuels from the ground, rather than individuals who then burn them and discharge them as emissions.
The database includes a striking comparison between long-term emissions trends dating back to 1854 and developments since the 2016 Paris Agreement.
The historical record covers 122 organizations linked to 72 percent of all fossil fuel and cement CO2 emissions since the start of the industrial revolution. This amounts to 1,421 gigatons.
In this long-term analysis, Chinese state coal production accounts for 14 percent of historical global C02, by far the largest share in the database. This is more than double that of the former Soviet Union in second place and more than three times that of Saudi Aramco in third place.
