36 Fossil Fuel Giants Responsible For Half of World’s CO2 Emissions: Report

Major fossil fuel companies, including Saudi Aramco, Coal India, ExxonMobil and Shell produced more than 20 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2023.

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36 major fossil fuel companies are responsible for over half of the world’s planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions, a new report has found.

The list, compiled by thinktank InfluenceMap, mostly comprises state-owned companies, which have emerged as the largest emitters by type, followed by investor-owned entities. Together, the 36 fossil fuel giants produced more than 20 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in 2023 – the reference year for the analysis.

Saudi Aramco topped the list at 1.839 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e), accounting for 4.38% of global CO2 emissions. If Aramco was a country, it would be the fourth largest polluter in the world after China, the US, and India.

The Saudi company was closely followed by Coal India – the world’s largest government-owned coal producer – and CHN Energy, a Chinese state-owned mining and energy company. Their emissions accounted for 3.68% and 3.65% of global CO2 emissions, respectively. American ExxonMobil and Chevron as well as British Shell were also in the top 20, alongside several other Chinese companies.

Christiana Figueres, a Costa Rican diplomat and former executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said state-owned companies were “ignoring the desperate needs of their citizens.”

The burning of coal, natural gas, and oil for electricity and heat is the single-largest source of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the primary drivers of global warming by trapping heat in the atmosphere and raising Earth’s surface temperature.

“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 decarbonized economic system that works for people and the planet,” Figueres said.

Yet global fossil fuel consumption has more than doubled in the last 50 years, as countries around the world aim to improve their standards of living and economic output. In 2023, all three of the most potent GHGs – carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide – reached record highs.

The International Energy Agency has urged countries to halt new gas and oil field projects, arguing that this is the only way to keep the 1.5C-compatible net-zero emissions scenario alive.

Backtracking

Top energy companies have doubled down on fossil fuels in recent months. British BP, which ranked 25th for global CO2 emissions share in 2023, last month announced a “strategic reset” that will see the company cut its renewable energy investments and instead focus on increasing oil and gas production to some 2.3 million to 2.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2030. 

Rivals TotalEnergies and Equinor also scaled back low-carbon energy investment plans recently, while Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron all committed to increasing fossil fuel production.

The mass exodus comes as the Trump administration’s “drill, baby drill” agenda is in full swing. In his first month in office, the president has withdrawn the US from the Paris Agreement and other climate commitments, and has declared a “national energy emergency” that would allow him to reverse many of the Biden-era environmental regulations and open up more areas to oil and gas exploration. The country is currently already producing more oil than any other country at any other time.

US Energy Secretary and former fracking executive Chris Wright said on Monday that the world needs more fossil fuel, not less.

“The Trump administration will treat climate change for what it is, a global physical phenomenon that is a side-effect of building the modern world,” Wright told attendees of an energy conference in Texas, adding that “[e]verything in life involves trade-off.”

Featured image: Rainforest Action Network/Flickr.