Overview
- The companies’ emissions account for roughly 60% of cumulative CO2 since 1850 and explain about half of the 2023 global surface temperature change.
- Human-driven warming made heatwaves 20 times more likely in 2000–2009 and 200 times more likely in 2010–2019, with 55 of 213 events at least 10,000 times more probable.
- The study applies event-series attribution to 213 heatwaves from 2000 to 2023 and includes product-use emissions, drawing on disaster records that underrepresent Africa and South America.
- Authors say the findings could strengthen policy moves on corporate responsibility and support court cases invoking the polluter-pays principle.
- Top contributors include entities from the former Soviet Union, China’s coal sector, Saudi Aramco, Gazprom and ExxonMobil, while smaller firms such as Russia’s Elgaugol are linked to dozens of events.