A new Carbon Majors report finds just 32 fossil fuel companies drove nearly half of global emissions in 2024, intensifying calls for accountability, climate justice and rapid fossil fuel phaseout.
Just 32 fossil fuel companies were responsible for nearly half of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions in 2024, a new global study has found, intensifying calls for stronger corporate accountability as the climate crisis deepens.
The latest Carbon Majors report shows that the number of companies producing 50 percent of global emissions has fallen from 36 last year to 32, even as total emissions continue to rise to record levels. Researchers say this shows how global warming is increasingly being driven by a small and powerful group of producers.
Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco topped the list, producing about 1.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2024, largely from exported oil. If it were a country, Aramco would rank as the world’s fifth-largest carbon polluter, just behind Russia.
Among investor-owned firms, ExxonMobil was the biggest emitter, with fossil fuel production linked to around 610 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, more than the annual emissions of several industrialised nations.
The Carbon Majors database is increasingly being used in legal and policy action. It has helped link emissions from major fossil fuel companies to deadly heatwaves and trillions of dollars in climate-related economic losses. The data has also been cited in landmark climate lawsuits in Europe and in new climate superfund laws in US states such as New York and Vermont, which require large polluters to help fund protection against flooding and extreme heat.
Reacting to the findings, Bangladeshi climate justice and human rights advocate Sohanur Rahman said the data leaves no room for excuses.
“These numbers clearly show who is driving the climate crisis,” he said. “A few fossil fuel corporations are making massive profits while millions of people face floods, heatwaves and displacement. This is not an accident. It is a choice.”
He added that countries like Bangladesh are paying the highest price despite contributing the least to global emissions. “Communities on the frontline are losing homes, food security and dignity. Those who caused the damage must be held responsible and must pay for loss and damage,” Sohanur said.
The report shows that state-owned companies dominate the list of top polluters. Seventeen of the top 20 emitters are controlled by governments that opposed a proposed global fossil fuel phaseout at the COP30 UN climate summit in December. These include Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and India, even though more than 80 countries supported the phaseout proposal.
Saudi Aramco declined to comment on the report, while ExxonMobil did not respond to requests for comment.
Emmett Connaire of think tank InfluenceMap, who led the study, said the trend is deeply worrying. “Each year emissions are becoming more concentrated among a shrinking group of producers while fossil fuel output keeps growing,” he said.
After a brief decline during the Covid pandemic, fossil fuel use has rebounded sharply, pushing emissions higher year after year. Scientists say global emissions would need to fall by 45 percent by 2030 to keep warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius under the Paris Agreement. While that goal now appears out of reach, experts warn that every delay will make climate impacts more severe.
Climate campaigners accused major fossil fuel firms of actively blocking progress. Tzeporah Berman of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative said, “These companies are not just failing to act. They are actively undermining climate solutions while expanding fossil fuel production.”
Former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres said the data strengthens the case for accountability. “The facts are clear and the science is clear. Large emitters are on the wrong side of history, and the world is moving toward clean energy whether they like it or not,” she said.
