The climate crisis of the 21st century has been caused largely by just 90 companies, which between them produced nearly two-thirds of the greenhouse gas emissions generated since the dawning of the industrial age, new research suggests.

 

The companies range from investor-owned firms – household names such as Chevron, Exxon and BP – to state-owned and government-run firms.

 

The analysis, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Climatic Change, found that the vast majority of the firms were in the business of producing oil, gas or coal.

 

Half of the estimated emissions were produced just in the past 25 years – well past the date when governments and corporations became aware that rising greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of coal and oil were causing dangerous climate change.

 

Many of the same companies are also sitting on substantial reserves of fossil fuel which – if they are burned – puts the world at even greater risk of dangerous climate change.

 

Climate change experts said the data set was the most ambitious effort so far to hold individual carbon producers, rather than governments, to account.

 

Between them, the 90 companies on the list of top emitters produced 63% of the cumulative global emissions of industrial carbon dioxide and methane between 1751 to 2010, amounting to about 914 gigatonne CO2 emissions, according to the research. All but seven of the 90 were energy companies producing oil, gas and coal. The remaining seven were cement manufacturers.

 

The data represents eight years of exhaustive research into carbon emissions over time, as well as the ownership history of the major emitters.

 

The largest of the investor-owned companies were responsible for an outsized share of emissions. Nearly 30% of emissions were produced just by the top 20 companies, the research found.