16 state-owned fossil fuel companies top the CO2 emission charts, nations need to be rich to electrify and need to electrify to get rich, and Norway drives the EV boom.

Country or company, where do emissions originate?

There is a tendency to focus on the countries of origin of coal, oil and gas rather than the organisations that extract the fuel from the ground. This is largely a function of, firstly, national governments, regardless of their differing political ideologies, providing the main governance of societies, and secondly the UN system for tackling climate change, including the Paris Agreement, which is based around independent nations.

While there’s no doubt that this arrangement suits the coal, oil and gas producing organisations very nicely, it also has to be accepted that national governments are still the only bodies that might take tackling climate change seriously and have the power to do anything meaningful about it.

Carbon Majors is a database of the historical and current CO2 and all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions arising from the activities of 166 of the world’s largest currently active coal, oil, gas and cement producers (plus 12 that are now inactive). The emissions include the direct production-related emissions (Scope 1 GHGs) and the emissions arising from the combustion of the fossil fuels (Scope 3 GHGs). Of the 178 producers (the “Carbon Majors”), 100 are investor-owned and 78 state-owned/controlled.

The conclusions that can be drawn from the data relating to 1854-2024 reveal some interesting patterns and trends that illuminate the inseparable relationship between countries and companies among the major GHG producers:

GHG emissions generated by the fossil fuel-related activities of the 166 Carbon Majors are still increasing (0.8 per cent higher in 2024 than 2023).

A small number of producers are historically and currently responsible for most of the emissions. The main emissions producers have been getting bigger and fewer in number over the last decade as a result of mergers and acquisitions and the expansion of production.

The fossil fuel industry is increasingly dominated by state-owned/controlled producers.

The top 10 GHG-producing companies in 2024 (responsible for 28 per cent of the emissions) were all state-owned/controlled (as were six of the next 10). Saudi Arabia, China, India, Iran and Russia feature prominently.

The largest producers are responsible for the continuing growth in emissions and are........

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