The rise in global atmospheric CO2, surface temperature, and sea level from emissions traced to major carbon producers

Abstract

Researchers have quantified the contributions of industrialized and developing nations' historical emissions to global surface temperature rise. Recent findings that nearly twothirds of total industrial CO 2 and CH 4 emissions can be traced to 90 major industrial carbon producers have drawn attention to their potential climate responsibilities. Here, we use a simple climate model to quantify the contribution of historical (1880-2010) and recent emissions traced to these producers to the historical rise in global atmospheric CO 2 , surface temperature, and sea level. Emissions traced to these 90 carbon producers contributed ∼57% of the observed rise in atmospheric CO 2 , ∼42-50% of the rise in global mean surface temperature (GMST), and ∼26-32% of global sea level (GSL) rise over the historical period and ∼43% (atmospheric CO 2 ), ∼29-35% (GMST), and ∼11-14% (GSL) since 1980 (based on bestestimate parameters and accounting for uncertainty arising from the lack of data on aerosol forcings traced to producers). Emissions traced to seven investor-owned and seven majority state-owned carbon producers were consistently among the top 20 largest individual company contributors to each global impact across both time periods. This study lays the groundwork for

The Impact of Divestment Announcements on the Share Price of Fossil Fuel Stocks

“…The Carbon Underground 200 is a list of the top 100 coal and top 100 oil and gas companies worldwide, ranked by the carbon emissions content of their reported reserves. The selection is an adequate representation of publicly traded fossil fuel companies since the largest corporations account for the largest share of potential fossil fuel production and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [81][82][83]. Moreover, the Carbon Underground 200 sample of corporations includes 98 percent of all coal and gas reserves and 97 percent of the oil reserves held by listed companies [80].…”

Fossil Fuel Divestment Strategies: Financial and Carbon-Related Consequences

“…Hence, fossil fuel divestment addresses the impact of carbon intensive fossil fuel production on climate change (Ekwurzel et al, 2017), and consequently advocates divestment from the fossil fuel industry (Ritchie & Dowlatabadi, 2014 (Howard, 2015). Well-known institutional investors, such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the Norway Pension Fund, the New York City pension funds (Eltman, 2018), and other institutional investors announced that they divest from coal and the fossil fuel sector (Arabella Advisors, 2015;Cripps, 2014), to balance their financial and moral responsibility (Sievänen, Rita, & Scholtens, 2017).…”

Characterizing disproportionality in facility-level toxic releases in US manufacturing, 1998–2012

“…Rather than designing regulations targeted at all facilities, a disproportionality approach suggests identifying and targeting egregious polluters. This approach has proved fruitful in attribution research in the climate policy community (Frumhoff et al 2015, Ekwurzel et al 2017 and in efforts to mitigate environmental injustice due to the co-location of egregious polluters and low income communities of color (Grant et al 2010, Collins et al 2016, Tessum et al 2019. Moreover, solutions that aim to reconfigure production at egregiously polluting facilities to meet industry averages, rather than closing such facilities, may generate less political opposition to regulation (Berry 2008, Collins 2012).…”