A step towards climate justice

The top 21 fossil fuel-emitting companies owe $5.4 trillion, or $209 billion annually in reparations (excluding some companies such as those in Venezuela, which the study considers to be in too poor an economic situation to pay). Liability was also halved for producers in Russia, China, Mexico, Brazil and Iraq according to One Earth’s methodology.

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Companies in countries that can afford to pay reparations include Saudi Arabia’s state-run oil and gas producer Saudi Aramco, which would owe the most at $43 billion annually, or about a quarter of its $161.1 billion profits in 2022.

In the US, ExxonMobil and Chevron would annually owe $18.4 billion and $12.8 billion respectively. ExxonMobil’s profits in 2022 alone were $56 billion, while Chevron made $35.5 billion in profits.

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Shell and BP, each based in the UK, would owe $16.30 billion and $14.5 billion per year respectively. Their 2022 profits were $39.87 billion and $27.7 billion.

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