20 Companies Have a Dirty Secret

The Climate Accountability Institute says they're responsible for 35% of emissions
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 13, 2019 5:00 PM CDT
20 Firms Are Behind 35% of Emissions
In this Feb. 18, 2015, file photo, a very large smokestack flare burns off flammable product after an explosion in a processing facility at the ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance, Calif.   (Chuck Bennett/Los Angeles Daily News via AP)

Fossil fuel companies emit greenhouse gases—we know. But a new analysis says 20 such companies are responsible for over a third of all greenhouse gas emissions since 1965, the Guardian reports. Conducted by Richard Heede, an authority at the Climate Accountability Institute, the study says 20 companies have released 35% of the world's energy-linked methane and carbon dioxide in modern times. That includes state-owned polluters like Saudi Aramco, said to have released 4.38% of total world emissions, and eight investor-owned companies. The data covers each company's full supply chain from ground extraction to end use, per MarketWatch. The top 10, with CO2-equivalent emissions in billions of tons since '65:

  1. Saudi Aramco: 59.26
  2. Chevron: 43.35
  3. Gazprom: 43.23
  4. ExxonMobil: 41.90
  5. National Iranian Oil Co: 35.66
  6. BP: 34.02
  7. Royal Dutch Shell: 31.95
  8. Coal India: 23.12
  9. Pemex: 22.65
  10. Petróleos de Venezuela: 15.75
Click to see the next 10. (Or see who just got arrested over climate change.)

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