Only a few dozen fossil fuel giants are now responsible for roughly half of the planet’s carbon dioxide pollution from coal, oil, gas and cement. A new analysis of corporate emissions shows that just 32 companies, many of them state owned, dominated fossil fuel CO₂ output in 2024, even as governments publicly pledged to phase out unabated fossil fuels. The findings sharpen the focus of climate accountability from abstract national targets to a short list of powerful producers.
The concentration of responsibility is not just a statistical curiosity, it is a political and economic fault line. When half of fossil fuel CO₂ comes from 32 firms, the choices of their executives and government owners carry outsized weight for whether the world can still limit warming in line with the Paris Agreement. I see this as a test of whether data driven transparency can translate into real pressure on the companies most central to the problem.
How researchers traced emissions back to 32 firms
The new numbers come from an expanded effort to attribute climate pollution to the companies that extract and sell fossil fuels, rather than only to the countries that burn them. Researchers built on the long running work of the Carbon Majors project, which compiles production data for coal, oil, gas and cement and converts it into CO₂ output linked to specific corporate producers. By tracking how much fuel each company brings to market and applying standard emissions factors, analysts can estimate the share of global fossil fuel and cement pollution that originates with each firm’s products.
According to the latest analysis, fossil fuel based carbon dioxide emissions continued to rise to record levels in 2024, and a majority of that increase could be traced to a relatively small set of producers. The study found that half of these emissions came from 32 companies, down from 38 companies five years ago, which means responsibility has become even more concentrated among the largest players. The researchers linked their corporate level inventory to global totals for fossil fuel and cement CO₂, showing how these 32 firms sit at the heart of a system that is still expanding production despite mounting climate damage, as detailed in the underlying analysis.
The biggest corporate emitters and their state backers
Within this group of 32, a handful of state controlled giants dominate. The five largest emitters overall were Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, Coal India, China’s CHN Energy, National Iranian Oil Co. and Russia’s Gazprom, each of them closely tied to governments that rely heavily on fossil fuel revenues. These companies sit at the center of national energy strategies and budget planning, which makes rapid cuts in production politically difficult even as climate impacts intensify. Their combined output illustrates how public treasuries and corporate balance sheets are intertwined with continued extraction, as highlighted in the breakdown of the five largest emitters.
One emblematic example is Saudi Aramco, which was responsible for 1.7bn tonnes of CO₂ in 2024, according to a study that illustrated its scale with images of crude oil storage tanks at Saudi Aramco’s Ras Tanura oil refinery and terminal. That single company’s emissions rival those of many industrialized countries, underscoring how a few producers can shape the global carbon budget. The same research emphasized that these corporate totals are not abstract accounting exercises but real contributions to atmospheric loading, and it argued that such data should be used to hold the companies accountable for their share of climate damage, a point driven home in the detailed profile of Saudi Aramco.
From 166 companies to half the world’s fossil CO₂
The corporate attribution work does not stop at the top 32. The same research linked 34.7 g of greenhouse gas emissions in 2024 to 166 companies, a group that includes major fossil fuel and cement producers across the world. That total represented a 0.8% increase from their combined emissions the previous year, a reminder that even as some firms tout net zero pledges, their overall output is still rising. I see that 166 figure as a kind of extended universe of climate responsibility, with the 32 largest at its core and a wider ring of companies that also need to be part of any serious transition plan, as laid out in the corporate wide emissions tally.
Earlier reporting on the same dataset stressed that it is no secret that fossil fuel and cement producers have primarily grown their emissions over time, even as climate science has become more urgent. Fortunately, emissions data is increasingly being used to hold these companies accountable, from shareholder resolutions to lawsuits that cite detailed corporate emissions histories. I read this as a shift from broad debates about national responsibility to more targeted scrutiny of specific firms, a trend that is reinforced by the growing visibility of company level data.
Why concentration of emissions matters for climate politics
The fact that just 32 fossil fuel firms cause 50% of global CO₂ emissions has immediate implications for climate diplomacy and domestic politics. A recent study has revealed that 32 companies were responsible for 50% of global CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels, a statistic that reframes debates about shared sacrifice into a more pointed question about the behavior of a few dozen corporate actors. I see this concentration as both a challenge and an opportunity: a challenge because these firms are powerful and often shielded by their governments, and an opportunity because focusing policy and financial pressure on a limited set of players could deliver outsized climate benefits, as summarized in the finding that 32, 50%.
Another analysis noted that 32 fossil fuel firms were responsible for half of all global CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels and cement, and it linked that reality to the broader struggle to keep the Paris temperature target within reach. The same report appeared in the context of Today’s ESG Updates, alongside coverage of President Trump Pushes for Greenland At Davos, a juxtaposition that underlined how climate risk, resource geopolitics and corporate accountability are colliding in real time. When I look at those ESG Updates, I see a world where high level political theater and the hard math of emissions from 32 firms are part of the same story about whether the global economy can pivot away from fossil fuels fast enough, a connection drawn explicitly in the note that 32 fossil fuel produce half of global CO₂ emissions.
State resistance, rising output and the shrinking carbon budget
The political headwinds are strongest in countries whose economies are deeply tied to these major emitters. Together, these companies produced 38% of global fossil fuel and cement CO₂ emissions in 2024, and many are based in states that have resisted calls for a firm fossil fuel phase out. The top five state owned emitters were closely associated with governments that have pushed back against language on phasing out oil, gas and coal in international negotiations, preferring vaguer commitments to abatement technologies. I read the 38% figure as a stark indicator that any global deal that does not bring these governments and their national champions on board will struggle to bend the emissions curve, a point underscored in the assessment that Together they account for 38% of such emissions.
More from Morning Overview