Half of the world’s climate-heating carbon emissions come from the fossil fuels produced by just 36 companies, analysis has revealed.
The researchers said the 2023 data strengthened the case for holding fossil fuel companies to account for their contribution to global heating. Previous versions of the annual report have been used in legal cases against companies and investors.
The report found that the 36 major fossil fuel companies, including Saudi Aramco, Coal India, ExxonMobil, Shell and numerous Chinese companies, produced coal, oil and gas responsible for more than 20bn tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2023.
If Saudi Aramco was a country, it would be the fourth biggest polluter in the world after China, the US and India, while ExxonMobil is responsible for about the same emissions as Germany, the world’s ninth biggest polluter, according to the data.
Global emissions must fall by 45% by 2030 if the world is to have a good chance of limiting temperature rise to 1.5C, the internationally agreed target. However, emissions are still rising, supercharging the extreme weather that is taking lives and livelihoods across the planet.
The International Energy Agency has said new fossil fuel projects started after 2021 are incompatible with reaching net zero emissions by 2050. Most of the 169 companies in the Carbon Majors database increased their emissions in 2023, which was the hottest year on record at the time.
“These companies are keeping the world hooked on fossil fuels with no plans to slow production,” said Christiana Figueres, the UN’s climate chief when the landmark 2015 Paris agreement was delivered. “The science is clear: we cannot move backwards to more fossil fuels and more extraction. Instead, we must move forward to the many possibilities of a decarbonised economic system that works for people and the planet.”
Emmett Connaire, at InfluenceMap, the thinktank that produced the Carbon Majors report, said: “Despite global climate commitments, a small group of the world’s largest fossil fuel producers are significantly increasing production and emissions. The research highlights the disproportionate impact these companies have on the climate crisis and supports efforts to enforce corporate responsibility.”
Saudi Aramco, Coal India, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, TotalEnergies and BP did not respond to requests for comment.
The Carbon Majors data has been used as evidence supporting laws passed in New York and Vermont states in the US, which seek compensation from fossil fuel companies for climate damages. The data has also been cited by legal groups as support for potential criminal charges against fossil fuel executives and referenced in regulatory actions, such as ClientEarth’s complaint against BlackRock for misleading investors.
The Carbon Majors report calculates the emissions released by the burning of the coal, oil and gas produced by 169 major companies in 2023. The database also includes emissions from the production of cement, which rose by 6.5% in 2023.
The 36 companies responsible for half of global emissions in 2023 includes state-owned companies such as China Energy, the National Iranian Oil Company, Russia’s Gazprom and the UAE’s Adnoc. Shareholder-owned companies in that group include Petrobras, headquartered in Brazil, and Eni, from Italy.
The 36 companies are dominated by state-owned enterprises, of which there are 25. Ten of these are in China, the world’s biggest polluting country. Coal was the source of 41% of the emissions counted in 2023, oil 32%, gas 23% and cement 4%.
The Carbon Majors dataset also includes historical emission from 1854 to 2023. It shows that two-thirds of carbon emissions from fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution are from 180 companies, 11 of which no longer exist.
Kumi Naidoo, the president of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, said: “We are living at a critical moment in human history. It is essential that governments step up and use their authority to end the root cause of the crisis we find ourselves in: the expansion of fossil fuels.”
