When analyzing the increase in emissions of so-called greenhouse gases, our first unavoidable stop is the producers of fossil fuels. The impact of oil, coal, and natural gas is impressive, and if we follow the latest report from the Carbon Disclosure Project, 71 percent of emissions between 1988 and 2015 are linked to just one hundred companies, with the top 25 concentrating more than 50 percent.
The Paris Agreement remains definitely alive despite the withdrawal of the US government. Ten states have decided to ignore the White House's position, joined by hundreds of cities and companies, among which AMD, Amazon, Apple, Intel, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Tesla, and eBay stand out. Volvo announced that all new models of its cars will be electric starting in 2019, and even Shell confirmed it will increase investment in its new energy division to one billion dollars annually. Solar energy is already much cheaper than fossil fuels in many regions of the world... but we must not be fooled. The outlook gives us hope, however, there are many giants out there that continue to exploit the trident of oil-gas-coal to the maximum, with the obvious consequences that brings.
The latest report published by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) translates those consequences into a list of one hundred public and private companies. In total, these companies have been responsible for 71 percent of emissions between 1988 and 2015, and more than 50 percent is concentrated in the Top 25. Chinese coal equals 14.3 percent, followed by Aramco (the state oil company of Saudi Arabia) at 4.5 percent, and Gazprom (50.23 percent under Russian government control) at 3.9 percent. According to Pedro Faría, technical director at CDP, there is an "absolute tension" between short-term profits and the need to reduce emissions, which prevents companies from adopting a larger role in correcting climate change.
And speaking of profits, a fifth of industrial emissions are backed by public investments. That places a much greater responsibility on investors, which at the same time translates into economic risk.
