November 22, 2013
Groundbreaking new research published today in the journal Climatic Change traces nearly two-thirds of all industrial emissions of greenhouse gases to just 90 entities that have been the largest producers of fossil fuels and cement. The result of more than eight years’ research by Richard Heede at the Climate Accountability Institute, the paper traces historic contributions to industrial emissions based on self-reported production records, regulatory filings and industry reports spanning more than 160 years (1854-2010). Significantly, the list includes 50 investor owned corporations that, together, account for more than a fifth of all carbon released into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution began.
“This research represents an important milestone in establishing legal accountability for climate change impacts”, said CIEL President Carroll Muffett. “It represents a comprehensive and extensively documented body of research that, for the first time, attributes the majority of global industrial greenhouse gas emissions to a discrete and identifiable group of entities–the majority of them publicly-held corporations.”
Coupled with the growing body of evidence demonstrating a direct relationship between the quantity of CO2 emitted and the amount of warming that results, and our increasing ability to document the impacts of climate change on specific regions, countries and even communities, Heede’s research–and the future research it will spawn–add a vital link in the causal chain essential to all successful suits: connecting the actions of identifiable defendants to the harms suffered by identifiable plaintiffs.
One of the recurring hurdles facing climate litigation has been identifying defendants whose actions have had a sufficiently significant impact on the global climate to make this link. By tracing industrial CO2 emissions to their underlying source, and to a small group of companies and entities whose actions have made a measurable, demonstrable and historically important contribution to global warming, this research demonstrates one important route by which those barriers can and will be overcome by plaintiffs in future litigation.
This increasingly real and potentially immense legal, financial and reputational risk should serve as a clarion call not only to the 50 investor owned companies on this list, but to investors, insurers and regulators assessing the investment profile and long-term value of these companies.
Muffett also distinguished these for-profit companies from the nine nations also identified in the research. “There is a fundamental difference between the actions of an investor-owned entity, which profit a discrete pool of officers and shareholders, and a nation of millions or hundreds of millions of people, the vast majority of whom may share far more in the impacts of fossil fuel extraction than its benefits.”
While this research will likely strengthen legal cases seeking to hold corporations accountable for climate impacts, it does not absolve developed countries of responsibility for failing to regulate activities under their jurisdiction that may harm the global environment. Nor does it release developed countries from their obligation to protect present and future generations from the risks of climate change.
“Of the 50 ‘Carbon Majors’ companies identified, more than 20 are headquartered in the United States, with a combined contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions higher than China. Just as the control over and the profits from these companies flowed back to the United States from their operations abroad, so too does the international responsibility for their climate impacts–past, present and future.”
The list is relevant not only in US courts but also in courts around the world where plaintiffs are seeking to hold corporations and States liable for their activities or for their failure to regulate the risks associated with these activities.
View the report here: http://link.springer.com/journal/10584/onlineFirst/page/1
Carbon Majors Website: http://carbonmajors.org/
Feature article in the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/20/90-companies-man-made-global-warming-emissions-climate-change
Greenpeace Blog: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/publications/reports/carbon-club/