80 Percent of Global CO2 Emissions Come From Just 57 Companies, Report Shows

80 Percent of Global CO2 Emissions Come From Just 57 Companies, Report Shows
Many of these companies increased their fossil fuel production after the Paris Agreement was signed in 2016

Christian Thorsberg
Daily Correspondent

April 9, 2024 2:48 p.m.

A new analysis released last week by the international non-profit InfluenceMap reveals an overwhelmingly unequal share of fossil fuel pollution worldwide. From 2016 to 2022, 80 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions were produced by just 57 companies.
Shared in the think tank’s Carbon Majors Database, which is authored by some of the world’s top climate researchers, the report names the leading state-controlled entities and investor-owned companies driving the climate crisis and global warming.

The production of coal, oil, natural gas and cement combined for around 30,000 megatons of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide in 2022 alone. Historically, of the world’s 122 top polluters, according to the Guardian, 65 percent of state-owned companies and more than half of private-sector companies had come to expand their output.

“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 Database 11 years ago, tells the Guardian’s Jonathan Watts. “Don’t blame consumers who have been forced to be reliant on oil and gas due to government capture by oil and gas companies.”

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The report also shows these entities moving in a startling direction—since the Paris Agreement was signed, 58 of the top 100 carbon-producing companies have actually increased their production. This trend was most visible in Asia, where 13 of 15 companies ramped up their operations, though the same dissonance was seen in the Middle East (7 of 10), Europe (13 of 23), South America (3 of 5), Australia (3 of 4), and Africa (3 of 6). In North America, 16 of 37 companies, 43 percent, increased their emissions since 2016.

More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/since-2016-80-percent-of-global-co2-emissions-come-from-just-57-companies-report-shows-180984118/