We Want Climate Action Now: Just 20 Companies Are Responsible for 35% of All Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Medium

Sunday, 10 November 2019

Just 20 Companies Are Responsible for 35% of All Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Medium

The Climate Accountability Institute recently released a new report into the role of the oil and gas industry in our climate crisis. The report looks at companies within this industry since 1965*, evaluating the fossil fuels which they are responsible for extracting from the earth and the emissions that these fossil fuels are responsible for.

The key finding of this report? That just twenty fossil fuel companies are responsible for 35% of the global total greenhouse gas emissions since 1965.

These companies are a mixture of investor-owned, private companies, and state-owned companies. Top of the list comes Saudi Aramco, a state-owned company in Saudi Arabia which is responsible for 4.38% of the global total emissions since 1965. In terms of private companies, Chevron, an American energy company active in 180 countries, is the worst offender, responsible for 3.2% of global total emissions since 1965. You probably recognise Exxon, BP, and Shell who are also up there in the list.