“It is morally reprehensible for companies to continue expanding exploration and production of carbon fuels in the face of knowledge now for decades that their products are harmful,” said Richard Heede, who established the Carbon Majors dataset.
A report released by Carbon Majors on Thursday says that 57 companies were responsible for 80% of the world’s CO2 emissions from fossil fuel and cement production between 2016 to 2022.
Saudi Aramco, Russia’s state-owned energy company Gazprom, and state-owned producer Coal India were at the top of the list. Carbon Majors has been keeping track of which companies are contributing the most to the climate crisis since 2013.
“The Carbon Majors research shows us exactly who is responsible for the lethal heat, extreme weather, and air pollution that is threatening lives and wreaking havoc on our oceans and forests,” Tzeporah Berman, international program director at Stand.earth and chair at Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, said in a statement. “These companies have made billions of dollars in profits while denying the problem and delaying and obstructing climate policy.”
📢 @InfluenceMap's latest report using #CarbonMajors database found 57 fossil fuel and cement producers linked to 80% of global fossil CO2 emissions since the #ParisAgreement
The report states that nation-state producers account for 38% of CO2 emissions in the database. That’s the highest percentage of any of the types of companies listed in the database.
“The Carbon Majors database finds that most state- and investor-owned companies have expanded their production operations since the Paris agreement. Fifty-eight out of the 100 companies were linked to higher emissions in the seven years after the Paris agreement than in the same period before,” the report reads.
In terms of investor-owned companies, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and BP contributed the most to CO2 emissions. ExxonMobil alone was responsible for 3.6 gigatons of CO2 emissions over a seven-year period.
“It is morally reprehensible for companies to continue expanding exploration and production of carbon fuels in the face of knowledge now for decades that their products are harmful,” said Richard Heede, who established the Carbon Majors dataset, told The Guardian. “Don’t blame consumers who have been forced to be reliant on oil and gas due to government capture by oil and gas companies.”
The Trans Mountain project would not have been possible without considerable direct federal government financial support. Credit: Adam Jones/Flickr(CC BY 2.0 DEED)
A new Environmental Defence analysis reveals that despite government promises to cut, the amount of taxpayers’ money given to the industry remains high.
Last year was one of the worst on record for climate change-related disasters, yet Canada’s federal government spent $18.6 billion supporting the fossil fuel and petrochemical industry.
A new report by the nonprofit Environmental Defence indicates that, despite record profits for the fossil fuel industry and Canadian claims to eliminate subsidies, the government of Justin Trudeau continues to spend massive quantities of public money supporting the primary cause of climate change.
“As people across Canada faced a fossil fuel affordability crisis, and climate disasters continued to ravage the country and the world, the government of Canada continued providing financial support to an industry that we need to be winding down in order to avoid catastrophic levels of warming,” Julia Levin, associate director of National Climate at Environmental Defence told DeSmog.
“Taxpayer handouts to Canada’s wealthiest companies means that less money is available for the types of investments that could actually help people across the country who are deciding between food and energy bills,” she said.
To put that in context, Environmental Defence’s “Canada’s Fossil Fuel Funding in 2023” report estimates that the Canadian government’s accumulated subsidies to the oil and gas sector over the last four years was at least $65 billion.
“That level of support could have fully funded every major wind and solar project in Canada from 2019 to 2021 12 times over,” said Levin. “It is 10 times what the government has invested in climate change adaptation since 2015. Around half of that, $35 billion, is enough to double transit ridership across the country over the next 12 years.”
The report identified specific subsidies including loan guarantees of $8 billion for the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline (TMX), and $7.3 billion in public financing through Crown corporation Export Development Canada. The report also noted over $1.3 billion in subsidies for carbon capture and storage projects, and approximately $1.8 billion in tax breaks for the oil and gas and related sectors.
The Trans Mountain project, controversially acquired by the Trudeau government early in 2018, would not have been possible without considerable direct federal government financial support. Initially estimated to cost $5.4 billion to complete, the most recent cost estimates are $34 billion. In addition to the added climate risk of a new pipeline exporting Canadian oil, with an anticipated drop in the global demand for oil, the project remains a substantial financial risk—one of the reasons Kinder Morgan abandoned it in the first place. The pipeline has been called a ‘global warming machine.’
Major Cost to Society
Environmental Defence’s report further notes the oil and gas sectors’ cost to society — in terms of air pollution, climate change-related natural disasters, and/or extreme weather — is estimated at $52 billion for 2023 alone.
Environmental Defence has been tracking the Canadian government’s subsidies to the oil and gas sector for several years, and as Levin explained in an interview with DeSmog, the organization has noticed certain trends.
“With the exception of 2020 as a COVID year, federal support to the oil and gas industry has been consistently around $18 to 20 billion in recent years,” she said. “We are seeing an increase in subsidies for carbon capture, and we know these are set to rise as the CCUS [Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage] investment tax credit gets finalized.”
Carbon capture and storage is the oil and gas industry’s preferred solution to addressing climate change, and the Canadian and American federal governments have heavily subsidized the technology. Critics warn that, rather than lowering emissions, carbon capture is emissions intensive and will be used to increase oil production through a technique called “enhanced oil recovery.” As previously reported by DeSmog, federal and provincial governments in Canada are preparing to spend billions in carbon capture subsidies.
Similarly, so-called blue hydrogen (hydrogen derived from natural gas using carbon capture) is also a costly, carbon- and resource-intensive false solution promoted by industry and government alike.
Levin called carbon capture and hydrogen “dangerous distractions.”
“The government of Canada is finalizing a carbon capture investment tax credit as well as a hydrogen investment tax credit,” Levin pointed out. “Recent budget analysis from the Parliamentary Budget Office estimates that these two tax credits will collectively provide over $11 billion to carbon capture and hydrogen projects by 2028.”
“Despite 50 years of investment, carbon capture has never worked as promised,” said Levin.
Delaying Clean Energy Transition
“Most projects never make it off the ground; the few that do fail to deliver the promised emissions reductions,” she said. “Oil and gas companies know this is a dead-end technology that won’t make a dent in emissions but they are promoting it to delay the clean energy transition and wring out even more subsidies.”
Levin noted that hydrogen is also being used by oil and gas companies to justify continued, and even expanded, fossil fuel production.
The government’s misuse of public money isn’t limited to unproven technologies masquerading as climate change solutions. Environmental Defence’s report reveals that the same funds could have been used for new green energy projects and the development of public transit infrastructure, and could also have taken a bite out of Canada’s affordability crisis.
“At a time when Canadians are dealing with a cost of living crisis, that level of funding could have retrofitted millions of homes to make them more energy efficient, therefore reducing energy bills,” Levin said. “It could have been used to reduce Canadians’ dependence on fossil fuels by switching our cars, furnaces, and stoves to electric options, which shields households from the inflationary pressures caused by fluctuating oil prices.”
Levin notes that there are other types of subsidies that Environmental Defence did not include in their inventory.
“The climate pollution created by oil and gas companies has massive costs, including health costs, property damage from extreme weather events, and decreased agricultural productivity due to changing weather patterns,” she said.
The report also found that oil and gas companies get considerable breaks on carbon pricing, which forms yet another kind of subsidy.
Canada’s continued subsidies to the fossil fuel sector defy explanation in this era of climate change. But they also contradict the government’s official messaging on fighting global warming, and the Canadian public’s expectations of their government.
“Ending fossil fuel subsidies should be the low hanging-fruit of climate policy,” said Levin. “It’s painfully obvious that when you’re in a hole, the first thing you do is stop digging.”
While the government has promised to end funding to the fossil fuel industry, far more action is needed, Levin believes.
“Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland must use Budget 2024 to announce the immediate steps the government is taking to eliminate all of its financing to the oil and gas industry, as was promised back in 2021,” said Levin.
“Rather than subsidizing fossils we should be taxing their massive profits – and investing the revenues into clean energy measures that will benefit Canadians.”
In recent years, Antarctica has experienced a series of unprecedented heatwaves. On 6 February 2020, temperatures of 18.3C were recorded, the highest ever seen on the continent, beating the previous record of 17.5C which had only been set a few years earlier.
Record-breaking temperatures during the heatwave on 6 February 2020. González-Herrero et al. (2022)
Events in recent years have bordered on the unbelievable, and it is difficult not to link them to climate change. In fact, studies have already emerged that clearly attribute some of these heatwaves to global warming: one of our investigations strongly suggests that without the influence of climate change, 2020’s record-breaking temperatures would not have occurred.
In our more recent study, published in February 2024, we adapted this measurement of speed and applied it to the edges of Antarctica. To do this, we tracked the southward migration of the zero-degree isotherm.
The zero-degree isotherm is an imaginary line that encloses the areas that are at zero degrees or lower. Its southward movement means that the area with temperatures below zero Celsius in Antarctica is getting smaller and smaller. Given that water freezes at zero degrees, this movement will have serious consequences for ecosystems and for the cryosphere (areas of the Earth where water is frozen).
Our calculations show that the zero-degree isotherm has moved at a speed of 15.8km per decade since 1957 in the area surrounding the Antarctic, while on the Antarctic peninsula itself it has moved at 23.9km per decade. As a result, it now sits over 100km south of where it was in the mid 20th century.
These measurements show that the speed of climate change on the edge of Antarctica is four times faster than the average of other ecosystems.
Evolution of the annual and seasonal position of the zero-degree isotherm in Antarctica between 1957 and 2020. The initials indicate the seasons for each measurement. MAM: autumn, JJA: winter, SON: spring, DJF: summer. González-Herrero et al. (2024)
The effects of emissions
To predict the consequences of the southward migration of the zero-degree isotherm, we ran our data through twenty different climate models. Although there is some variation in the shift of the isotherm among the models, all agree that it will move significantly further southward over the next few decades.
The models also predict that, over the coming decades, the isotherm’s movement will accelerate regardless of emissions. However, the extent of its southward movement in the second half of the 21st century will depend on how much carbon we emit.
If we continue at our current rate of emissions, the zero-degree isotherm will continue to advance at a similar rate before slowing down during the second half of the 21st century. However, if emissions are higher, the isotherm’s migration will accelerate continuing its southward movement until the end of the century.
Change in the summertime position of the zero-degree isotherm over the course of the 21st century. Based on IPCC climate scenario SSP5-8.5, whereby current emission levels are approximately doubled by 2050. Adapted by González-Herrero et al. (2024)
Impacts on the cryoshpere and ecosystems
The zero-degree isotherm’s southward movement will not remain solely in the atmosphere, it will also affect the cryosphere (all of the frozen areas of Antarctica) and the biosphere (the species that live there).
Changes in the isotherm’s position will mean more liquid rain instead of snow in the outermost regions of the continent, though it may in fact cause increased snowfall in other areas.
Reduced snowfall on the frozen sea – which acts as insulation – may lead to accelerated loss of sea ice during summer thaw periods.
Although the effects on permafrost, ice shelves and continental ice are still uncertain, it will undoubtedly affect the peripheral glaciers of the Antarctic Peninsula. These constitute one of the largest potential sources of sea level rise in the coming decades.
The “oil slicks” performance artist group demonstrates the impacts of a potential oil spill on Scotland’s Moray Firth as part of a North Sea-wide day of action on March 16, 2024. (Photo: XR Forres)
“Going full steam ahead with new North Sea oil and gas is a sure fire route to the worst climate scenarios,” one campaigner said.
Climate activists in six North Sea countries came together on Saturday to carry out acts of civil disobedience in protest of their governments’ continued fossil fuel development.
Demonstrators in the United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands blockaded roads, ports, and refineries; dropped banners; and held solidarity concerts as part of the North Sea Fossil Free campaign to demand that their governments align their plans for the shared body of water with the Paris agreement goal of limiting global heating to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels.
“For too long, the U.K., Norway, and other North Sea countries have avoided scrutiny for their oil drilling plans as the emissions are not included in their national inventories,” a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion U.K. told Common Dreams. “Going full steam ahead with new North Sea oil and gas is a sure fire route to the worst climate scenarios.”
“The only serious response we can make is for citizens to unite, but we need to see many many more people doing this work.”
The day of action, which was organized by Extinction Rebellion (XR), came days after a new report from Oil Change Internationalrevealed that none of five North Sea countries—Norway, the U.K., the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark—have plans consistent either with limiting warming to 1.5°C or with the agreement to transition away from fossil fuels reached at last year’s United Nations COP28 climate conference. If the five countries were counted as one, they would be the seventh biggest producer of oil and gas in the world.
In particular, these governments continue to issue permits to explore for and develop oil and gas fields, despite the fact that the International Energy Agency has said that no new fossil fuel development is compatible with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C. In one high-profile example, the U.K. approved the undeveloped Rosebank oil field in September 2023. Taken together, these permits could lead to more than 10 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
The worst offenders were Norway and the U.K., which could be among the top 20 developers of oil and gas fields through mid-century if they do not change course.
“The five major North Sea countries are at a crossroads: One path leads toward global leadership in climate action and green industries, where they take bold action to phase out oil and gas production that creates sustainable jobs and communities. The other path leads to catastrophic climate change, economic crisis, and the loss of status as climate leaders globally, as they cling to outdated practices while the world moves forward,” Silje Ask Lundberg, North Sea campaign manager at Oil Change International, said when the report was released.
Extinction Rebellion co-founder Clare Farrell said that the North Sea governments’ policies were a betrayal of their citizens and the world following the hottest year on record.
“Temperatures have tracked 1.5°C above average recently, almost 2°C,” Farrell said. “Our global commitments, such that they are, are being flushed away with no regard for what the public really want. Where’s the consent for that here in our democracies? No government has a mandate to do that. So people deserve to know that our governments are willfully destroying everything. The people of these North Sea nations have not consented to destroying civilization, but that’s what is going to happen. Their governments are unhinged and unchecked.”
Saturday’s protests, Farrell continued, were a way for the people in these countries to make their voices heard.
“The only serious response we can make is for citizens to unite, but we need to see many many more people doing this work,” Farrell said. “Direct action like this should shake us awake; our governments will destroy democracy and society if we let them continue, that’s the course we are on, and they are redoubling their efforts despite the facts and knowing how much suffering they are already causing all over the world as climate breaks down.”
The demands of Saturday’s protests were threefold: An end to new oil and gas infrastructure in the North Sea, for governments to tell the truth about the realities of the climate crisis, and for the countries to pursue a just transition to renewable energy. In addition, many activists made additional demands specific to their nations’ policies.
— Extinction Rebellion Nederland (@NLRebellion) March 16, 2024
In the Netherlands, activists with Extinction Rebellion and Scientist Rebellion blocked all roads and railways leading to the largest oil refinery in Europe: Shell’s Pernis refinery. They targeted Shell because the oil major has received new permits to drill in the Victory Gas Field and has also restarted its drilling in the Pierce Field. What’s more, the company has refused to clean up its aging equipment in the North Sea, leaving old pipelines and drilling platforms to rust and pollute the sea with mercury, polonium, and radioactive lead. While there are 75 aging Shell oil and gas platforms in the Dutch North Sea that should be removed by 2035, current efforts are not on track to meet this deadline.
“Like the rest of the fossil industry, Shell is only interested in profits and shareholder returns,” said Bram Kroezen of XR Netherlands, adding that Shell’s appeal of a landmark court ruling ordering it to reduce emissions showed that the company “completely lacks a moral compass.”
Germany
As part of today's concerted action #NorthSeaFossilFree, we shut down access inroads to water-bound LNG-infrastructure in #Brunsbüttel✊🏼
— Ende Gelände International #StopColonialViolence (@ende_gelande) March 16, 2024
Activists with Ende Gelände blocked off access to a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the port of Brunsbüttel, Germany, beginning at 9:00 am local time. The activists are calling for an end to LNG imports, as new science reveals the so-called “bridge” fuel may in fact be at least as damaging to the climate as coal due to previously unaccounted for methane leaks.
“LNG is a double climate killer,” Rita Tesch, spokesperson for Ende Gelände, said in a statement. “Because it consists of methane. Methane is even more harmful to the climate than carbon dioxide. It escapes into the atmosphere during transportation by LNG ships and at terminals such as here in Brunsbüttel, and heats it up rapidly. The carbon dioxide from burning it is on top of that. It’s clear: LNG imports are a climate crime!”
Norway
EXTINCTION REBELLION NORWAY BLOCKS RAFNES REFINERY Extinction Rebellion Norway (XR) is conducting a large-scale action aimed at Rafnes refinery in Bamble.XR-activists are now on their way into the security zone with a boat. Dozens of activists are blocking the main entrance on… pic.twitter.com/e2x9Vx1t6M
— Extinction Rebellion Norway (@XR_Norge) March 16, 2024
Activists with XR Norway targeted Rafnes Petroleum Refinery, with some blockading access on land while another group entered the security area by boat.
“I’m ashamed to be a Norwegian,” XR Norway spokesperson Jonas Kittelsen said in a statement. “Norway profits massively from aggressively expanding our oil and gas sector, causing mass suffering and death globally. My government portrays us as better than the rest of the world, which we are not.”
Denmark
Punkband Octopussy Riot is performing on top of a container next to the Total headquarter at Esbjerg Harbour in protest of new oil and gas extraction in the north sea. Becoming species and XR are part of an international action today all across The North Sea #NorthSeaFossilFreepic.twitter.com/wfheUpXVgd
— Extinction Rebellion Danmark (@ExtinctionRDK) March 16, 2024
Performance collective Becoming Species and Extinction Rebellion Denmark worked together to stage a creative protest targeting the oil company Total Energies, which is the leading oil and gas producer in the Danish North Sea and currently has plans to reopen “Tyra Feltet,” Denmark’s largest gas field. Four members of the band Octopussy Riot climbed a Total-owned container and staged a punk concert in Denmark’s Esbjerg Harbor.
“We octopuses have formed the band Octopussy Riot and have arrived here to play our song, a demand for you two-legs to stop oil and gas extraction,” performer Linh Le, said. “The sea is dying, our climate collapsing. We will not accept that the most rich and powerful destroy our home. We do not want to go extinct.”
Sweden
Kom till Göteborg nu på lördag 16:e mars och delta i denna kampanj mot ny fossil infrastruktur i Nordsjön: – Inga nya fossila investeringar i Nordsjön. – Fossilgas är inget alternativ. – Ta bort gamla oljeplattformar. – Sluta borra! pic.twitter.com/n3GzFhI05E
— Extinction Rebellion Sverige (@ExtinctionR_SV) March 14, 2024
Members of XR Sweden blocked the road to Gothenburg’s Oil Harbor, where the group has been protesting since May of 2022. The activists called on Sweden to stop investing in the harbor and on city officials to develop a plan to dismantle the harbor and refineries.
“Twenty-two million tons of oil enter Gothenburg’s port every year, which is owned by the city,” one activist said. “There is no plan for decommissioning. This does not go together with the climate goals.”
Scotland
XR Scotland Oil Slicks and Scottish groups in Forres, Shetland, Aberdeen and Dundee are supporting amazing #NorthSeaFossilFree blockades of fossil fuel infrastructure in 5 countries.
— Extinction Rebellion Scotland (@ScotlandXr) March 16, 2024
Finally, protesters across Scotland stood in solidarity with the other actions with performances and banner drops. In Aberdeen, activists unfurled banners outside the offices of Equinor, which owns 80% of Rosebank, and Ithaca, which owns the remaining 20%. The banners read, “North Sea Fossil Free,” “Stop Rosebank,” and “Sea knows no borders.” In Dundee, protesters targeted the Valaris 123 oil platform off the coast with banners. Shetland Stop Rosebank also brought signs to Lerwick Harbor, from where the first stage of Rosebank’s development is launching. XR Forres organized a performance of the group the “oil slicks” along the Moray Firth, to demonstrate what an oil spill would do to its unique coastal landscape.
“All countries should align their drilling plans with the Paris agreement now,” the XR U.K. spokesperson said. “We thank everyone who has taken action today in defense of a livable planet.”
Activists from Fossil Free London outside the InterContinental in central London, demonstrate ahead of the Energy Intelligence Forum, a gathering between Shell, Total, Equinor, Saudi Aramco, and other oil giants, October 17, 2023
CAMPAIGNERS have branded Shell CEO’s multimillion pay packet a “bitter pill to swallow” after the corporation announced today it would be watering down its climate pledges.
…
It also revealed that CEO Wael Sawan pocketed £7.94 million in pay in 2023.
Since taking charge last year, the executive oversaw plans to axe 25 per cent of Shell’s low-carbon solutions team and abandoned a policy to cut oil production each year for the rest of the decade.
Greenpeace campaigner Philip Evans took aim at the new boss, saying he has “doubled down on fossil fuels while ruthlessly slashing jobs and investment from Shell’s renewables division — and personally pocketed a tidy £8m for his trouble.”
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Global Witness campaigner Jonathan Noronha-Gant said Mr Sawan’s payout “is a bitter pill to swallow” for the millions struggling with energy costs.
He said: “Our reliance on Shell’s dirty oil and gas make them rich whilst the rest of us get poorer.”
Image of InBedWithBigOil by Not Here To Be Liked + Hex Prints from Just Stop Oil’s You May Find Yourself… art auction. Featuring Rishi Sunak, Fossil Fuels and Rupert Murdoch.
