When it comes to the state of our planet and its urgent climate problem, action is imperative, because time is of the essence.
100 companies are responsible for more than 70% OF ALL CO2 EMISSIONS. But who are they? What secrets have they been keeping from us? And what can we do to stop them?
Corporations are killing people day after day, without having to fear prosecution or other consequences. That might sound drastic— but the situation itself is even worse. If we cannot learn to live in a carbon-neutral environment by 2035 and hold global warming to less than 1.5°C (2.7°F), our children will not inherit the world that we’ve been able to experience. And their children could encounter a planet so hostile to human existence that civilization as we know it may cease to exist. To halt the climate change that imperils our world, it is far from enough to recycle, or ride a bike to work, or vacation closer to home. Even if everyone in the world were to cooperate in such endeavors, we would reduce carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions by no more than 30%.
The reason: The world’s biggest producers of CO2 are 100 companies among the 200 million enterprises that are operating across the globe. This means only 0.00005% of the world’s companies are responsible for about 70% of all CO2 emissions. That is the conclusion of a study called the Carbon Majors Report. Its authors point to the true villains in this saga: corporations that must change their behavior if we’re going to save the Earth. At the same time, the list is a source of hope because it shows precisely where the most pressure needs to be applied.
But those 100 companies are not going to make this endeavor easy: The cold hard truth about humaninduced climate change threatens not only their business practices, but their very existence.
On the following pages we lay out a pathway to the goal of mitigating climate change by 2035 while at the same time illustrating how these 100 companies have sought to conceal the truth about their activities. One important method: discrediting their critics. They will try to do the same thing with articles such as this by disparaging sources and motives. But the facts are clear, as confirmed by thousands of climate studies, the expertise of tens of thousands of climate scientists, and the results of massive amounts of data collected worldwide. This is a battle against the most powerful syndicate in the world—and it will do everything it can to fight back. Corporations are not just working to maximize profits regardless of the consequences, which they see as their duty to their shareholders. Their motto when it comes to climate change is “Après nous, le déluge”—in essence: “We don’t care what happens after we’re gone.” But make no mistake about it: The deluge is coming!