Just 32 fossil fuel companies were responsible for half of global carbon dioxide emissions driving the climate crisis in 2024, down from 36 a year earlier, according to the Carbon Majors report. Saudi Aramco was the biggest state-controlled polluter, emitting 1.7 billion tonnes of CO2, while ExxonMobil was the largest investor-owned polluter, with 610 million tonnes.
State-owned producers made up 17 of the top 20 emitters, all controlled by countries that opposed a proposed fossil fuel phaseout at the Cop30 summit in December, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Iran, the UAE and India. Critics accused leading firms of “sabotaging climate action” and “being on the wrong side of history”.
Emissions have resumed annual rises to record levels since a Covid-19 blip, despite the need for a 45% cut by 2030 to meet the Paris agreement’s 1.5C target. Emmett Connaire of InfluenceMap said emissions are becoming increasingly concentrated among a shrinking group of high-emitting producers.
Tzeporah Berman of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative said the analysis shows a powerful group of corporations are “actively sabotaging climate action”. Christiana Figueres, former UN climate chief, noted that while clean energy investment now nearly doubles fossil fuels, major emitters “cling on to outdated, polluting products”.
The Carbon Majors database has been used to link emissions to deadly heatwaves and economic losses, and to support legal cases such as Lliuya v RWE in Germany and climate superfund laws in New York and Vermont. Rebecca Brown of the Center for International Environmental Law said courts are increasingly connecting fossil fuel production to climate destruction, demanding accountability.
