In a comprehensive new analysis, the Carbon Majors database sheds light on the primary culprits behind the escalating climate crisis, revealing the outsized contributions of a select group of industrial producers: Just 78 corporate and state entities are responsible for over 70% of cumulative historical emissions between 1854 and 2022.
Launched in 2013 by Richard Heede from the Climate Accountability Institute, Carbon Majors is a database of historic production data from 122 of the world’s largest oil, gas, coal, and cement producers. As InfluenceMap (the organization behind the project) writes, the database has “played a pivotal role in holding fossil fuel producers to account for their climate-related impacts in academic, regulatory, and legal contexts.”
In the words of Carroll Muffet, President and CEO of the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL):
“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.”
Carbon Majors Database 2024
The Carbon Majors database categorizes entities into the following three types:
- investor-owned companies;
- state-owned companies;
- and nation-states.
Investor-owned companies, the report found, account for 31% of all emissions tracked by the database; Chevron, ExxonMobil, and BP are the three largest contributors, respectively, among investor-owned companies.
State-owned companies, led by Saudi Aramco, Gazprom, and the National Iranian Oil Company, are linked to 33% of total emissions, while nation-states contribute the remaining 36%.
Despite the global commitments made in 2015 under the Paris Agreement, the report highlights a concerning trend of increasing emissions linked to these major producers in the years following the agreement: Between 2016 and 2022, emissions linked to 117 entities in the database totaled 251 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent, representing over 88% of total fossil fuel and cement emissions during this period.
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Worryingly, the report traces as much as 80% of these emissions in the seven years following the Paris Agreement to just 57 corporate and state-producing entities, revealing that “most state- and investor-owned companies have expanded their production operations since the Paris Agreement.”
Even overall, the report found 58 out of 100 companies to have increased emissions between 2016 and 2022. This increase is “most pronounced” in Asia and the Middle East, where 87% and 70% of assessed companies, respectively, are connected to higher emissions. Which is not to say companies in other parts of the world performed much better.
As the report finds, 57% of European companies were linked to higher emissions post-Paris Agreement, as were 60% of companies in South America, 75% in Australia, and 50% in Africa. The only region where less than half of companies (43%) were linked to rising emissions is North America.
The Carbon Majors report also highlights a shift in coal production dynamics, with a decrease in emissions linked to investor-owned companies contrasted by an increase in emissions from state-owned companies and nation-states.
“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,” said Tzeporah Berman, International Program Director at Stand.earth and Chair at Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of Impakter.com — Cover Photo Credit: Chris LeBoutillier.
