The world is getting hotter, the storms stronger, climate change is here, and there is no end in sight. A recent report by Carbon Majors found that half of the world's CO2 emissions (a driver of climate change) is from only 32 fossil fuel companies.
The biggest state-owned polluter was Saudi Aramco (1.7bn tons of CO2 emissions in 2024), and the biggest private investor polluter was Exxon Mobil (57.458million tons of CO2 in 2024). Seventeen of the top 20 polluters were state controlled companies. Of course, all top polluters oppose any phase out of fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal) - this could hurt their profits!
Carbon Majors is a database of production data from 178 of the world's largest oil, gas, coal, and cement producers. They discuss one thing that could be done: a surcharge on fossil industry profits. Their reasoning: Make polluters pay.
Excerpts from The Guardian: Half of world’s CO2 emissions come from just 32 fossil fuel firms, study shows
Just 32 fossil fuel companies were responsible for half the global carbon dioxide emissions driving the climate crisis in 2024, down from 36 a year earlier, a report has revealed.
Saudi Aramco was the biggest state-controlled polluter and ExxonMobil was the largest investor-owned polluter. Critics accused the leading fossil fuel companies of “sabotaging climate action” and “being on the wrong side of history” but said the emissions data was increasingly being used to hold the companies accountable.
State-owned fossil fuel producers made up 17 of the top 20 emitters in the Carbon Majors report, which the authors said underscored the political barriers to tackling global heating. All 17 are controlled by countries that opposed a proposed fossil fuel phaseout at the Cop30 UN climate summit in December, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and India. More than 80 other nations had backed the phaseout plan.
Saudi Aramco was responsible for 1.7bn tonnes of CO2, much of it from exported oil. If it were a country, Aramco would be the world’s fifth biggest carbon polluter, just behind Russia. ExxonMobil’s fossil fuel production led to 610m tonnes of CO2 – it would be the ninth biggest polluter, ahead of South Korea.
Since a blip during the Covid pandemic, continued fossil fuel burning has led to carbon emissions resuming their annual rise to record levels each year. Emissions would have to fall by 45% by 2030 to meet the Paris agreement’s goal of 1.5C, a target now seen as impossible. But limiting the overshoot is vital, say experts, as every fraction of a degree of heating worsens the climate impacts on communities.
Emmett Connaire, of the thinktank InfluenceMap, who led the report, said: “Each year, global emissions become increasingly concentrated among a shrinking group of high-emitting producers, while overall production continues to grow.”
Tzeporah Berman, of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, said: “This latest analysis reinforces a stark reality: a powerful, concentrated group of fossil fuel corporations are not only dominating global emissions but are actively sabotaging climate action and weakening government ambition.”
The Carbon Majors database underpinned recent analysis that directly linked carbon emissions from the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies to dozens of deadly heatwaves that otherwise would have been virtually impossible. The data also enabled another study to attribute trillions of dollars in economic losses related to extreme heat to individual fossil fuel companies.
The database has also provided evidence in legal cases, such as Lliuya v RWE, a landmark German climate litigation case, and climate superfund laws in New York and Vermont that require large fossil fuel companies to pay for projects to protect citizens against climate impacts such as flooding and extreme heat.