Half of World's CO2 Emissions Come From 36 Fossil Fuel Firms, Study Shows
- Reference: 0176623829
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/03/05/181204/half-of-worlds-co2-emissions-come-from-36-fossil-fuel-firms-study-shows
- Source link:
> 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.
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> 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.
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> 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.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/05/half-of-worlds-co2-emissions-come-from-36-fossil-fuel-firms-study-shows
False (Score:5, Insightful)
Half of the world's emissions come from *burning the products* of 36 fossil firms, that's what the study measured. These firms don't set their own product on fire by any significant scale. To find the culprit there you just have to look in the mirror.
Re:False (Score:5, Insightful)
It's even worse than that.
If you wanted to stop the most culprits, you'd have to forcibly conquer India and China, and drive their populations into the stone age.
I honestly wonder when someone will try and start the first anti-CO2 literal war.
Re: (Score:3)
I fear the rise of CO2 may lead to war, but not in the way you think. Rather, it will render currently-populated portions of the planet uninhabitable, and affect the viability of crops. Limitation of resources leads to war between groups who are competing for them.
Re: (Score:2)
The problem here, is that crops are CO2 scrubbers and return O2 in the process. Unlike Brawndo, plants REALLY do crave CO2
Re: False (Score:2)
Their contribution is trivial and extremely temporary.
Re: (Score:2)
> I fear the rise of CO2 may lead to war, but not in the way you think. Rather, it will render currently-populated portions of the planet uninhabitable, and affect the viability of crops. Limitation of resources leads to war between groups who are competing for them.
And hundreds of millions of refugees fleeing for safe places with food and water.
Re: (Score:1)
Most fossil fuels are burned in the first world.
The third world makes only a small contribution to greenhouse gases. They are not the problem.
Re: (Score:2)
Dude, India and China account for over 40% of emissions, and they're up +197% and +242% over their year 2000 measurements. First world (which arguably is US, CA, EU, AUS, JP and a few middle east countries) account for ~28% and all their numbers have gone down in the last 23 years.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions)
The 3rd world *is* the current problem and without a serious effort on the part of India and China this is all moot.
Re: (Score:2)
Looks like China is the problem. 34%
Re: (Score:2)
> Looks like China is the problem. 34%
More accurately, China is one third of the problem.
Solving a third of the problem won't solve the problem, so, no, having China drop their emissions isn't enough.
Re: (Score:2)
India can probably not do more, given they have a population the size of China and 25% of China's CO2 emissions. Frankly the only way to keep CO2 emissions down is to have people in the 3rd world stay in the stone age, otherwise you'd see a rise of CO2 per capita. I know a lot of people don't to talk CO2 per capita because for the planet only the absolute matters, but it does mean something from a quality of life perspective.
What's interesting as well is the same argument for these 36 companies applies to
Re: (Score:2)
> because for the planet only the absolute matters
The planet will be fine. It's its suitability for our habitation of it, in the manner to which we are accustomed, that is at stake.
Technology, not poverty [Re:False] (Score:2)
> India can probably not do more, given they have a population the size of China and 25% of China's CO2 emissions. Frankly the only way to keep CO2 emissions down is to have people in the 3rd world stay in the stone age, otherwise you'd see a rise of CO2 per capita.
Not the only way.
The other way is to implement technologies that don't emit carbon dioxide. Presumably we'd start out by replacing our own infrastructure, but when technology goes down the learning curve it gets cheaper.
Re: (Score:2)
> Dude, India and China account for over 40% of emissions
Well actually China and the USA account for over 40% of emissions. India is 3rd down the list, which is quite impressive since it has 8x the population of the USA and emit half the emissions. But sure tell us how *THEY* are the problem, anything to divert blame from yourself amirite?
Re: (Score:2)
> If you wanted to stop the most culprits, you'd have to forcibly conquer India and China, and drive their populations into the stone age.
Yeah sure we could advocate wiping out people to solve the problem, but then wouldn't it make sense to start with those who emit the most? I know this won't be popular with Americans though, they like dispensing explosive democracy not receiving.
Re: False (Score:1)
That's funny, maybe they should conquer the US, as the US is much MUCH higher on the list of pollution then China, when compared per capita.
Re: (Score:2)
> But BP, or was it Shell, told me I should be focused on my personal carbon footprint.
> Pay no mind to the enormous corporations that profit from steering the world away from green solutions.
Well you absolutely should be. If you were advocating for green solutions you'd be directly removing profits from the oil companies. Stop buying their product, they stop making profit, we stop making emissions. Do your bit.
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And they pretty much just identified the entire fossil fuel industry. Thanks for narrowing it down.
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> To find the culprit there you just have to look in the mirror.
Don't blame me, I ride the bus.
(Saw that on a protester's sign once.)
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Yeah it's easy to say you're doing your bit. But the reality is we are wholly dependent on burning fossil fuels.
I drive an EV. I'm doing my bit right? Except I also power my house with electricity that is 85% non-renewable. I heat my house with gas because the alternatives are difficult to implement. I just bought a new gaming headset that was shipped half way around the world from China. God knows what other emissions I have due to my lifestyle (I LOOOOVE meat).
That said I spend a lot of time BBQing which
No (Score:2)
Producing oil, coal and gas isn't the same thing as polluting the atmosphere with CO2. Just saying.
Re: (Score:2)
> Producing oil, coal and gas isn't the same thing as polluting the atmosphere with CO2. Just saying.
But it is the start of the process of emitting CO2.
They produce the fuel, not the emissions (Score:2)
This is so dumb. These companies produce the oil, gas, and coal that the entire world runs on and makes chemicals from. They aren't the major producers of CO2, the consumers are.
Re:They produce the fuel, not the emissions (Score:5, Insightful)
They also produce the political lobbying that prevents more pressure for those consumers to find and use alternatives to their products, so they're note free of responsibility either.
Re: (Score:2)
>> They also produce the political lobbying that prevents more pressure for those consumers to find and use alternatives to their products, so they're note free of responsibility either.
> "Political lobbying generates CO2". LOL
That's not what zuckie13 meant, and you know it.
Re: (Score:2)
True. At least some of them are trying to diversify into other energy sources. A big power plant in the area that I live now also has a large solar energy facility on its property. One of the local farmers (who was probably renting the land) has signs up denouncing the use of farmland for solar energy, so you can't please everybody.
Re: (Score:3)
> At least some of them are trying to diversify into other energy sources.
Actually they really aren't anymore. The last holdout was BP and even they walked back their green agenda massively last week. Shell, Equinor, Total, virtually all abandoned any pretence that they were diversifying away from oil and gas last year, and a shitton of fossil companies never even bothered trying in the first place.
While I can't blame them for customers burning their products, I can't support their green virtue signalling either. You can bet your arse the reason that power plant has a solar farm
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> They also produce the political lobbying that prevents more pressure for those consumers to find and use alternatives to their products, so they're note free of responsibility either.
Well it's hard to blame lobbyists, on the other hand it's easy to blame the morons that let themselves be lobbied to and sell you and your future out in the name of pleasing those lobbyists. It's really hard to justify how lobbying could be at fault these days when everyone knows they are a horrendously large source of CO2 emissions. I blame the politicians more.
Utterly wrong and misleading. Fail. (Score:1, Insightful)
The production of the fossil fuels is NOT, I repeat, *NOT* responsible for the rise of pollution or emissions.
It is the *USE* of these fuels in vehicles and other areas that causes the pollutions or emissions. The people who are DIRECTLY responsible are the people who put the gas in their cars and USE THE GAS to get from point A to B that are responsible, and that is ALL OF US.
Attempting to pin it on the companies is deflecting responsibility, simply because climate change activists know they have absolute
Re: (Score:2)
> that is ALL OF US
You can't pin this on me. I didn't agree to any of it.
Both [Re:Utterly wrong and misleading. Fail.] (Score:2)
> The production of the fossil fuels is NOT, I repeat, *NOT* responsible for the rise of pollution or emissions.
Obviously you can't burn fossil fuels unless somebody produces fossil fuels to burn, so, yes, they are quite literally a part of the emissions process.
The opposite is also true: you don't have emissions unless somebody burns the fossil fuels the oil companies produce.
It's a flaw in thinking to demand that one and only one entity is responsible for a process for which multiple entities contribute (and that, by holding them responsible, everybody else contributing in the process bears no responsibility). Th
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
No, they are part of the process of CREATING the fossil fuels, but not of USING them, which is what creates the emissions. A child can understand this.
They bear no responsibility in the emissions process. They are not emitting the burnt fossil fuels.
This statement:
"Half of the world's climate-heating carbon emissions come from the fossil fuels produced by just 36 companies"
Is objectively wrong. The emissions come from USING the fossil fuels produced by those companies.
If everyone stopped using all the fo
Re: (Score:3)
> No, they are part of the process of CREATING the fossil fuels, but not of USING them, which is what creates the emissions. A child can understand this.
By that logic, tobacco companies bear no responsibility for the harm their products cause. Products they have [1]marketed to children. [wikipedia.org]
Of course, children can't drive cars, but the fossil-fuel industries are culpable for doing everything they can to advance their industry in the face of evidence their products cause harm. [2]And yet they receive subsidies. [imf.org]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Camel
[2] https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2023/08/24/fossil-fuel-subsidies-surged-to-record-7-trillion
Re: (Score:2)
It's a stupid comparison to make. Your lifestyle literally depends on energy, it does not depend on smoking cigarettes, you only do that because someone told you you'd look cool doing so.
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Both companies make products that cause harm. Utility is not the point.
Re: Both [Re:Utterly wrong and misleading. Fail.] (Score:2)
A child could also understand that the fossil fuel companies pay politicians not to hold them accountable, what's your damage?
Re: (Score:2)
> This statement:
> "Half of the world's climate-heating carbon emissions come from the fossil fuels produced by just 36 companies"
> Is objectively wrong.
No, it is objectively correct. These companies may not consume these fossil fuels, but they do produce them.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
> They bear no responsibility in the emissions process.
The over 200 million dollars in campaign donations and 150 million dollars in lobbying just last year alone paints a different picture about who is to blame for the fact that American society is organized in a way that requires people to burn their product, with no realistic plan to change it.
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I can see English is not a strength for you. The statement as written is completely correct according to what you say. "Half of the world's climate-heating carbon emissions come from the fossil fuels produced by just 36 companies" != "Half of the world's climate-heating carbon emissions come from the fossil fuels production of just 36 companies" Do you see the difference?
Re: (Score:2)
> No, they are part of the process of CREATING the fossil fuels, but not of USING them, which is what creates the emissions.
You can't use the fuels unless somebody created them. That's part of the process.
> A child can understand this.
You can't use the fuels unless somebody created them. A child can understand this.
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> No, they are part of the process of CREATING the fossil fuels, but not of USING them, which is what creates the emissions.
The problem with both of you is you're speaking in absolutes. Creating fossil fuels takes an incredible amount of energy. A refinery will have some 40+ furnaces running based on burning the off gas from its own separation units. It's gotten better, they used to fire up those furnaces with oil lances, at least these days they burn fuel gas.
And that's before you consider economic flaring (the process of burning gas at production facilities because it's cheaper to burn it as a by product from oil drilling inst
Re: (Score:3)
The production of fossil fuels is a very messy business, corporations don't just pull the oil from the ground and then ship it to gas stations. The refining process produces all sorts of emissions. Take the oil sands in Canada, if production of fossil fuels doesn't create emissions and pollution like you said, where is all the pollution/emissions coming from in that area? Why have I read about water table contamination in the area, multiple times over the years?
Let's say the governments of the world w
Re: (Score:2)
I think the obsession we have in trying to place blame is going to slowly see us choking ourselves out in our own waste, as no single individual entity can take the blame. Societal issues are societal issues: Film at eleven.
Maybe we should put as much effort into trying to find solutions as we do into trying to find the correct entity to blame?
In some ways, this is not a very fun time to be alive. Especially if you're a deep thinker that likes to look at the aggregate whole of us.
We as humans have found our
Re: (Score:2)
This is the only time in history where one could:
"look at the aggregate whole of us."
And I'm talking really recently. During my grade school in the 1980s, Columbus and the conquistadors were celebrated for their exploration. We now see them through clearer glasses (terrible conquest).
It is the technologies that made this wide understanding possible that are doing the pollution.
Life is a Catch-22 of sorts.
You mean it's not the average persons fault? (Score:2)
Of course the biggest problem is industry, but the reality is that without strong government or legal intervention, companies large enough to impact climate change, won't do jack, especially without excessive profit guarantees. The reality is, the average person can't do anything to impact climate change in a meaningful and sustainable way. We can hold summits, talk about the dangers and risk, have feel good 1 hour blackouts to support emotions, but it doesn't equate to any meaningful change.
Take all th
Re:You mean it's not the average persons fault? (Score:5, Insightful)
> Of course the biggest problem is industry, but the reality is that without strong government or legal intervention, companies large enough to impact climate change, won't do jack, especially without excessive profit guarantees. The reality is, the average person can't do anything to impact climate change in a meaningful and sustainable way. We can hold summits, talk about the dangers and risk, have feel good 1 hour blackouts to support emotions, but it doesn't equate to any meaningful change.
> Take all the effort used to have meaningless talks, summits, and move it into legal avenues. Put hard, and absolute restrictions in place on large industry, because that's what will work, that is by far the most effective avenue we have. Once industry is under control, then we can start talking about the “small guy”.
Just lead by example. Show us all how you and your family live a good modern life free from all products made directly or indirectly from fossil fuels.
Re: (Score:2)
No, I don't have to show anything, because if we don't regulate the core companies causing the problem, why are we regulating (or trying to), the down stream consumer? That's the entire point, we need to place the blame where it belongs, and once that's solved, move it down, but we're not in even in the same solar system as the end consumer at this point.
Re: (Score:2)
> No, I don't have to show anything, because if we don't regulate the core companies causing the problem, why are we regulating (or trying to), the down stream consumer? That's the entire point, we need to place the blame where it belongs, and once that's solved, move it down, but we're not in even in the same solar system as the end consumer at this point.
I didn't suggest regulating the consumer. I'm saying your comfortable modern life is entirely built on products directly or indirectly made from fossil fuels. You should be thanking the companies that have made your life possible, not blaming them. If you think you can maintain your comfortable modern life without these products then show us all how it's done. Sure some people can survive living off the land but most of us would end up naked, sick, and starving in a muddy ditch at the side of the road i
Re: (Score:3)
This argument rests entirely on the idea that these fossil fuels companies have always been honest actors and have not or would not engage in any actions to stop or slow alternative energy production methods. We'd also have to ingore all the evidence that they knew and attempted to sweep the knowledge that bruning the fuels would have a negative environmental impact. These aren't selfless good Samaritans, they produce a product to make and sell for a profit, we are the customers and we are captive customers
Re: (Score:2)
I don't have to show I can live without anything, once the regulation of the companies starts, then we pivot, but pivoting before there's a need isn't required. I'm sure major road blocks would be hit, quickly, but, that's really the only way we're going to get a hold of climate change, and it has to be top down, not bottom up.
I'm not suggesting I haven't benefited from the same companies I'm suggesting to regulate, but I'm a realist that we have to start regulating them with more restrictions.
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Say that in Billy Bob Thornton's voice and it almost sounds agreeable.
The problem with that Texas 2-step around the truth is that the oil companies have known about climate change for decades, and have lobbied against doing anything about it because they don't know how to make money any other way. Or they don't want to for idealogical reasons.
Our comfortable modern life was engineered for us by inventors and corporations that manufactured, marketed and distributed products.
Should we thank them for overlooki
Re: (Score:2)
> Say that in Billy Bob Thornton's voice and it almost sounds agreeable.
> The problem with that Texas 2-step around the truth is that the oil companies have known about climate change for decades, and have lobbied against doing anything about it because they don't know how to make money any other way. Or they don't want to for idealogical reasons.
> Our comfortable modern life was engineered for us by inventors and corporations that manufactured, marketed and distributed products.
> Should we thank them for overlooking the problems associated with their products for decades, and for lobbying against any invention that would make our lives better and safer at the cost of their high profits?
Reminds me of this: [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X85pbSaOP0
Re: You mean it's not the average persons fault? (Score:1)
Itâ(TM)s very easy to *reduce* your emissions if you choose. Drive an EV. Eat a vegan diet. Install solar panels at home. Switch to electric heating. Many of these require investment and thatâ(TM)s why government support is essential.
Polluter (Score:3)
> If Saudi Aramco was a country, it would be the fourth biggest polluter in the world after China, the US and India,
Really? They are burning that much fossil fuel on their own? Or did they just sell it to others who burned it?
First, figure out how you are going to assign blame. Because if Saudi Aramco, ExxonMobil and other producers are going split up 100% of it, then I'm getting off scott free for driving a gas hog truck.
Cartels are responsible for drug addiction. Spoons made me fat.
sad - solution is right there... (Score:1)
It's just sad at this point. The solution - costs less. We are not doing it because? The great thing - it costs less, so companies that want to be cost competitive - will demand it and do it. Companies that are not - will cost themselves out of competition.
Re: (Score:2)
You forget the power of *drumroll* lobbying . Yes, that's right. The appropriate amount of lobbying can fix any problem for these companies.
Re: (Score:2)
> The solution - costs less. We are not doing it because?
Because once you work your way through the caveats it doesn't cost less anymore.
What about the other half? (Score:2)
What are the biggest contributors to the other half of emissions? I guess those don't work with the "transportation bad" narrative here.
Re: (Score:1)
Animal respiration, volcanoes, burning vegetation, decaying vegetation, animal farts. Add all that up and you get the approximate amount created by the fossil fuel industry annually.
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> Animal respiration , volcanoes, burning vegetation, decaying vegetation, animal farts . Add all that up and you get the approximate amount created by the fossil fuel industry annually.
Make sure you only count animals specifically raised as food sources. Because meat is bad, mmm'kay. Gotta get all our guilt drivers wrapped up together here.
Re: (Score:2)
Sorry to be pedantic, but if you mean cows when you say animals, it's cow belches (not farts) that are the problem.
Stupid (Score:1, Insightful)
We don't have enough CO2 for an ecological optimum. We're at an all time low (almost).
Significantly lower would be dangerous for most life.
But watching the political landscape currently I'm optimistic that the CO2 death cult / business model is going to be stopped anyway or else they would try to stop vulcanos at some point.
Oh, this makes it easy! (Score:2)
We just eliminate 36 companies and problem solved! No more emissions!
Shell got sued in the Netherlands (Score:2)
Millieudeffensie (an activist organization in the Netherlands) tried to hold Shell responsible for all emissions of their clients through the court system. Shell does not put up with that, because that would mean an end to their business model (sell fuel). The fight is not yet over.
If Millieudefensie wins at our High Council, shell has to change its business model, because there's simply no way for them to hold their clients responsible for their behavior.
In all actuality, if Millieudefensie wins at the Hig
This is just to make sure folks know who to sue (Score:1)
It is about identifying Deep Pockets for law suits, nothing more.
Re: (Score:2)
These companies have taken in enormous profits at the expense of the planet's climate. Why should they not pay something?
and we buy it all... (Score:2)
Wouldn't be the big companies if we didn't pay money for the product. Ya ya, it's the 36 big companies. Blame them.
Not to defend Big Oil, but ... (Score:2)
Not to defend Big Oil, but it's obviously not them as such producing that CO2. (athough I bet the fossil fuel industry is not clean by any measure). It's their clients that burn the stuff.
The solution is painful but simple and straightforward: the price of fossil fuels should not just reflect the cost of getting it out of the ground. It has to reflect the damage it will do later on. That money has to be collected at the initial producer and spent on recapturing the CO2 or mitigating the damage. A Carbon Ta
Imagine my utter shock (Score:3)
The large companies/conglomerates that pump out and deliver hydrocarbons end up being the source of the largest quantity of hydrocarbon byproduct.
Just shocking I tell you!
I was just so sure it'd be some nuclear plants or something.....
Of course, if their consumers were motivated not to that'd help - but that pressure is being released right now it seems.
Re: (Score:2)
The real shocker is they had to add up 36 of them to make an interesting headline. I would have expected fewer.