In a shocking new report on the biggest contributors of greenhouse gases (GHG), 100 fossil fuels have been deemed responsible for releasing 71 percent of all global emissions.
The study was conducted by the Carbon Disclosure Project in collaboration with the Carbon Majors Database and the Climate Accountability Institute. The report dissected the role of large corporations in climate change as opposed to reports of emissions that are broken down by country and don’t provide the biggest picture. See the report here
“In 1988, human-induced climate change was officially recognized through the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),” the report states.
“Since this time, the fossil fuel industry has doubled its contribution to global warming by emitting as much greenhouse gas in 28 years as in the 237 years between 1988 and the birth of the industrial revolution. Since 1988, more than half of global industrial GHGs can be traced to just 25 corporate and state producers.”
The report reveals that the biggest emitters are state owned, such as the Chinese coal mining and the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, who are responsible for 14.3 and 4.5 percent of total global emissions since 1988.
After these companies, the highest emitting companies are ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, and Chevron. The good news; these companies are investor-owned so they could be pressurized into changing their ways and make greener choices. The report adds,
“investors in fossil fuel companies carry influence over one-fifth of industrial greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. So they could help shape the energy debate worldwide.”
While Trump administration is busy cozying up to his friends from these air polluting conglomerates and denying global warming, there is enough evidence to convince any thinking person that these anti-environmental policies are only going to hurt the companies in the long run and even pose existential crisis.
For example, this research paper detailed how if international oil companies don’t change their demented ways and continue to pretend that nothing has changed, they will face a collapse within the next decade.
And this latest report should serve as a grave reminder to the climate change deniers that how direct human activity is destroying our world at a truly alarming rate.