Back in October of 2016, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists did an interview with researcher Richard Heede, who had just completed a dozen years’ work to pin down the exact carbon contributions of all the oil, coal, and gas producers (and cement makers) since the industrial revolution kicked into high gear. At that time, Heede’s findings seemed stunning enough, as can be seen from the title of our 2016 interview: “Just 90 companies are accountable for more than 60 percent of greenhouse gases.”
Now, however, things have kicked up another notch. In the time since our original Bulletin story, Heede has sharpened his focus still further, and narrowed his timeline to just the period since 1965—the point when the climate effects of fossil fuels became known to industry leaders. His stunning new findings were the focus of an entire package of a half-dozen stories on the front page of today’s Guardian in a new section called “The Polluters;” the take-away is that a mere 20 fossil fuel companies are directly linked to more than one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the modern era.
Asked for comment on these findings, climate scientist Michael Mann said in one of the stories in the Guardian’s polluters package: “The great tragedy of the climate crisis is that seven and a half billion people must pay the price—in the form of a degraded planet—so that a couple of dozen polluting interests can continue to make record profits.”
For his part, Heede—now with the Climate Accountability Institute’s Carbon Majors—writes in a separate Opinion piece for the newspaper: “Fossil fuel companies must not be allowed to sit on the sidelines, professing support for climate action while they continue to contribute to worsening climate chaos. I challenge oil executives to manage their companies in line with the best science on climate change.”
- CBCSD and Members Participated and Suggested on the Project for Technical Regulation on Low-carbon Pilot Community
- CBCSD and Members Participated in the APEC Cooperation Network Construction Forum of Green Supply Chain
- Calculation Method of CO2 Emissions in Petroleum and Natural Gas Exploitation Enterprises & Calculation Method of CO2 Emissions in Water Network of Chemical Enterprises
- CBCSD Attended the Workshop for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development and Delivered Introductions
- WBCSD: Tackling the Challenge, How to Make Informed Choices on Forest Product?
- The National New-Type Urbanization Plan Released, Board Members of CBCSD Help the Sustainable Development of Cities
- Board members of CBCSD Actively Participated in the Carbon Trading and International Climate Change Process
- Two industrial Standards Compiled by CBCSD Passed Examination
- Widespread Use of the Achievements Businesses Energy Saving and Greenhouse Gas Management
- CBCSD held Chemical industry enterprise value chain (range 3) greenhouse gas emissions, accounting and reporting guidelines