Reading Stars on Vons in Bakersfield California
T he Guardian today reveals the xx fossil fuel companies whose relentless exploitation of the world's oil, gas and coal reserves tin can be directly linked to more than one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the modern era.
New data from world-renowned researchers reveals how this accomplice of state-endemic and multinational firms are driving the climate emergency that threatens the time to come of humanity, and details how they have connected to expand their operations despite being enlightened of the industry's devastating touch on the planet.
The assay, by Richard Heede at the Climate Accountability Constitute in the US, the world's leading potency on big oil's part in the escalating climate emergency, evaluates what the global corporations have extracted from the ground, and the subsequent emissions these fossil fuels are responsible for since 1965 – the bespeak at which experts say the environmental impact of fossil fuels was known past both industry leaders and politicians.
The top twenty companies on the list take contributed to 35% of all energy-related carbon dioxide and methyl hydride worldwide, totalling 480bn tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCOiie) since 1965.
Q&A What is the polluters project?
Show
The Guardian has collaborated with leading scientists and NGOs to betrayal, with exclusive data, investigations and analysis, the fossil fuel companies that are perpetuating the climate crisis – some of which have accelerated their extraction of coal, oil and gas even equally the devastating affect on the planet and humanity was becoming clear.
The investigation has involved more than 20 Guardian journalists working across the world for the past six months.
The projection focuses on what the companies accept extracted from the ground, and the subsequent emissions they are responsible for, since 1965. The assay, undertaken by Richard Heede at the Climate Accountability Constitute, calculates how much carbon is emitted throughout the supply chain, from extraction to apply by consumers. Heede said: "The fact that consumers combust the fuels to carbon dioxide, water, heat and pollutants does not absolve the fossil fuel companies from responsibility for knowingly perpetuating the carbon era and accelerating the climate crisis toward the existential threat it has at present become."
Ane aim of the project is to move the focus of fence from individual responsibilities to power structures – so our reporters also examined the financial and lobbying structures that let fossil fuel firms continue growing, and discovered which elected politicians were voting for modify.
Some other aim of the project is to press governments and corporations to close the gap between ambitious long-term promises and lacklustre short-term action. The United nations says the coming decade is crucial if the world is to avert the most catastrophic consequences of global heating. Reining in our dependence on fossil fuels and dramatically accelerating the transition to renewable energy has never been more urgent.
Those identified range from investor-owned firms – household names such as Chevron, Exxon, BP and Trounce – to country-owned companies including Saudi Aramco and Gazprom.
Chevron topped the list of the eight investor-owned corporations, followed closely by Exxon, BP and Shell. Together these iv global businesses are behind more than 10% of the earth'southward carbon emissions since 1965.
Twelve of the top 20 companies are country-endemic and together their extractions are responsible for xx% of total emissions in the same menstruum. The leading state-endemic polluter is Saudi Aramco, which has produced iv.38% of the global full on its own.
Michael Mann, one of the globe'due south leading climate scientists, said the findings shone a light on the role of fossil fuel companies and called on politicians at the forthcoming climate talks in Chile in December to have urgent measures to rein in their activities.
"The slap-up tragedy of the climate crisis is that 7 and a one-half billion people must pay the cost – in the course of a degraded planet – so that a couple of dozen polluting interests can proceed to brand tape profits. Information technology is a nifty moral failing of our political system that we take immune this to happen."
The global polluters list uses company-reported annual product of oil, natural gas, and coal and and so calculates how much of the carbon and methane in the produced fuels is emitted to the atmosphere throughout the supply chain, from extraction to end utilise.
Information technology found that ninety% of the emissions attributed to the top 20 climate culprits was from use of their products, such every bit petrol, jet fuel, natural gas, and thermal coal. One-10th came from extracting, refining, and delivering the finished fuels.
The Guardian approached the 20 companies named in the polluters list. Eight of them have replied. Some argued that they were not directly responsible for how the oil, gas or coal they extracted were used by consumers. Several disputed claims that the environmental bear upon of fossil fuels was known every bit far dorsum as the late 1950s or that the industry collectively had worked to delay action.
Nearly explicitly said they accepted the climate science and some claimed to support the targets set out in the Paris agreement to reduce emissions and keep global temperature rises to 1.5C in a higher place pre-industrial levels.
All pointed out efforts they were making to invest in renewable or depression carbon energy sources and said fossil fuel companies had an important office to play in addressing the climate crunch. PetroChina said it was a divide visitor from its predecessor, China National Petroleum, so had no influence over, or responsibleness for, its historical emissions. The companies' replies can be read in full here.
The latest study builds on previous piece of work by Heede and his team that has looked at the historical function of fossil fuel companies in the escalating climate crisis.
The impact of emissions from coal, oil and gas produced past fossil fuel companies has been huge. Co-ordinate to research published in 2017 by Peter Frumhoff at the Spousal relationship of Concerned Scientists in the United states of america and colleagues, CO2 and methane emissions from the 90 biggest industrial carbon producers were responsible for almost half the ascension in global temperature and close to a tertiary of the sea level rise between 1880 and 2010. The scientists said such work furthered the "consideration of [companies'] historical responsibilities for climate change".
Heede said: "These companies and their products are substantially responsible for the climate emergency, have collectively delayed national and global action for decades, and tin can no longer hibernate behind the smokescreen that consumers are the responsible parties.
"Oil, gas, and coal executives derail progress and offering platitudes when their vast upper-case letter, technical expertise, and moral obligation should enable rather than thwart the shift to a low-carbon time to come."
Heede said 1965 was called as the start point for this new information because recent inquiry had revealed that by that stage the environmental touch on of fossil fuels was known by industry leaders and politicians, particularly in the U.s..
In November 1965, the president, Lyndon Johnson, released a report authored by the Ecology Pollution Console of the President'due south Scientific discipline Informational Committee, which set out the likely affect of continued fossil fuel production on global heating.
In the aforementioned year, the president of the American Petroleum Institute told its annual gathering: "One of the virtually of import predictions of the [president'due south written report] is that carbon dioxide is being added to the Earth's atmosphere by the called-for of coal, oil and natural gas at such a rate by the year 2000 the rut rest volition be so modified every bit maybe to cause marked changes in climate beyond local or even national efforts."
Heede added: "Leading companies and manufacture associations were aware of, or wilfully ignored, the threat of climate modify from continued use of their products since the late 1950s."
The inquiry aims to concur to account those companies near responsible for carbon emissions, and shift public and political debate away from a focus just on private responsibility. It follows a alert from the UN in 2018 that the globe has just 12 years to avoid the worst consequences of runaway global heating and restrict temperature rises to ane.5C above pre-industrial levels.
The study shows that many of the worst offenders are investor-owned companies that are household names around the world and spend billions of pounds on lobbying governments and portraying themselves as environmentally responsible.
A report before this year found that the largest five stock-market-listed oil and gas companies spend nearly $200m each year lobbying to delay, command or cake policies to tackle climate alter.
Heede said the companies had a "significant moral, financial, and legal responsibleness for the climate crisis, and a commensurate burden to assistance address the problem".
He added: "Even though global consumers from individuals to corporations are the ultimate emitters of carbon dioxide, the Climate Accountability Constitute focuses its work on the fossil fuel companies that, in our view, have their collective manus on the throttle and the tiller determining the charge per unit of carbon emissions and the shift to non-carbon fuels."
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/09/revealed-20-firms-third-carbon-emissions
0 Response to "Reading Stars on Vons in Bakersfield California"
Post a Comment