Carbon Emissions And Financial Risk Concentrated In 90 Top Emitters Responsible For 60% Of Emissions

picture-14220-1371594844.jpg
on

A survey releasedย last week indicates many major institutional investors, such as retirement funds and insurance companies, are putting their investments at risk by neglecting to address the negative financial impacts posed by climateย change.

Itโ€™s no wonder that some of these investments are dicey when you consider the findings of another paper released last month, which indicated 90 companies are responsible for two-thirds of manmade carbon emissions. Thatโ€™s not just a huge concentration of carbon emissions โ€” itโ€™s a concentrated dose of financialย risk.

Published in the journal of Climatic Change, the report, โ€œTracing anthropogenic carbon dioxide and methane emissions to fossil fuel and cement producers, 1854โ€“2010,โ€ uses public records and data from the U.S. Department of Energy to calculate emissions based on the companiesโ€™ entire supplyย chains.

All but seven of the 90 companies identified are part of the fossil fuelย industry.

Nearly 30 percent of emissions were produced by just the top 20 companies. Together, ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, ConocoPhillips and Peabody Energy, all investor-owned companies, are responsible for more than 13 percent of manmade carbonย emissions.

These companies also have a disproportionate amount of political influence in North America. In the United States alone,ย ExxonMobil,ย Chevronย andย BPย have contributed more than $12 million to lawmakersย sinceย 1999.

Half of the emissions traced by the report were produced in the last 25 years, when awareness of global warming was increasing. Concerted efforts to deny climate science and halt climate policy began in the early 1990s. As an updated Greenpeace report released in September 2013 shows, the climate denial machine has its roots in Exxonโ€™s funding of front groups.

These companies have also received billions of dollars to pollute. The International Monetary Fund estimates the fossil fuel industry receives about $1.9 trillion dollars in globalย subsidies.

As reported by DeSmog, an Oil Change International briefing paper released during COP19 in Warsaw revealed that, โ€œsubsidies lavished on the on the fossil fuel industry by wealthy industrialized nations add up to more than five times the amount of climate finance aid the same countries have so far pledged to deliver to poorer nations to reduce their global warming emissions and adapt to manmade climateย change.โ€

โ€œWhat I think could be a game changer here is the potential for clearly fingerprinting the sources of those future emissions,โ€ climate scientist Michael Mann told The Guardian. โ€œIt increases the accountability for fossil fuel burning. You canโ€™t burn fossil fuels without the rest of the world knowing about it.โ€

Image credit: Financial risk bomb via Shutterstock

picture-14220-1371594844.jpg
Caroline is a freelance writer focusing on race, class, gender, and the environment. A 2012 graduate of St. Maryโ€™s College of Maryland, she wrote her senior thesis on the Keystone XL. Caroline has worked for the US Climate Action Network, the Global Campaign for Climate Action, the American Wind Energy Association, and the Energy Action Coalition. Currently, she blogs about her ethical living experiments atย www.zerowastegirl.com.

Related Posts

on

DeSmog estimates raise questions over climate benefits as EU officials consider whether the technology should qualify for billions of euros in subsidies.

DeSmog estimates raise questions over climate benefits as EU officials consider whether the technology should qualify for billions of euros in subsidies.
Analysis
on

Experts accuse Farageโ€™s party of a โ€˜deliberate campaign of misinformation about climate changeโ€™ in the House of Commons.

Experts accuse Farageโ€™s party of a โ€˜deliberate campaign of misinformation about climate changeโ€™ in the House of Commons.
on

A Conservative peer and former UK trade advisor were among those who spoke at the summit.

A Conservative peer and former UK trade advisor were among those who spoke at the summit.
on

All Conservative appointees to the Board of Trade have been binned by the new Labour government.

All Conservative appointees to the Board of Trade have been binned by the new Labour government.