25 Fossil Fuel Producers Linked to Half Global Emissions in 3 Decades

"CDP traced the greenhouse gas emissions of 100 oil, coal and gas companies, together linked to 71% of emissions since 1988. Exxon is high on the Carbon Majors list. "

"A handful of big fossil fuel producers have been responsible for the majority of global greenhouse gas emissions in the years since climate change seized the world's attention as a looming crisis, according to a new report issued today.

When emissions from agriculture and land-use changes are taken out of the equation, a mere 25 producers account for just over half of emissions in the past three decades, the report says. The top 100 account for 71 percent of these industrial emissions.

Because of rapid economic growth and growing demand for power generation, especially among populous developing nations, more than half of the emissions in the centuries since the Industrial Revolution have occurred since 1988. That was the year that the United Nations founded the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to urgently study mankind's role in climate change and advise governments on science-based policies to confront it."

Georgina Gustin reports for InsideClimate News July 9, 2017.