Most carbon dioxide emissions linked to 57 entities: Research

Eighty percent of worldwide carbon emissions since 2016 are attributable to fewer than 60 companies and countries, according to a report published Thursday by the think tank InfluenceMap.

The report attributes the vast majority of overall emissions to 57 entities, a combination of nation-states, state-owned companies and investor-owned companies. The three largest producers of man-made emissions are all state-owned companies, according to the report. Saudi Aramco is the source of not only 4.8 percent of global emissions between 2016 and 2022, but for 3.6 percent of global emissions since 1854, considered the beginning of the industrial era.

Russian-owned Gazprom is the number-two entity for emissions between 2016 and 2022, with 3.3 percent, followed by Coal India, with 3 percent. Two other state-owned companies, National Iranian Oil Co. and Russian-owned Rosneft, rounded out the top five with 2.8 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively. The only investor-owned entities in the top 10 are ExxonMobil, responsible for 1.4 percent of emissions, and Shell, responsible for 1.2 percent.

However, the report also determined that the top 5 investor-owned companies—Chevron, BP, ExxonMobil, Shell and ConocoPhillips—are the source of a greater share of historical emissions than the top five state-owned companies — Saudi Aramco, Gazprom, the National Iranian Oil Company, Coal India, and Mexico’s Pemex. Overall, 11.1 percent of historical emissions are attributable to investor-owned firms, compared to 10.9 percent for state-owned firms.

Since 2015, the year the Paris Climate Agreement was drafted, most entities have expanded fossil fuel production, according to InfluenceMap. Sixty-five percent of state-owned firms and 55 percent of investor-owned firms increased production from 2016 to 2022, compared to the previous seven-year period.

Asian countries and companies drove most of the post-Paris increase, according to the report, which found an increase among all five investor-owned Asian companies analyzed and eight of 10 state-owned Asian companies, with coal production driving the increase.

Paris Agreement signatories have committed to reduce emissions enough to keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius and reach the point of net-zero emissions by mid-century. Iran is the only major emitter not party to the agreement.