25 November 2007 | Luca Del Buono

 

Six of the 10 largest companies on the globe come from one of the oldest and historically most carbon intensive sectors in business: oil and gas.

Between them, the oil majors shown in The Guardian's Green List account for 91% of the total emissions of CO2.

That says a lot about the scale of the challenge we face in moving to a low carbon world.

ExxonMobil takes the dubious prize for the highest emissions, responsible for 146m tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum, equivalent to the annual emissions of the United Arab Emirates.

ExxonMobil is also the worst offender when it comes to total emissions relative to sales, a staggering 436 tonnes per $1m. By contrast, BP is nearly twice as efficient in its operations, emitting 261 tonnes of carbon dioxide per $1m in sales.

Three of the remaining top 10 companies come from the car manufacturing sector. General Motors has the highest emissions at 12m tonnes per annum.

DaimlerChrysler and Toyota both emit a modest 7m tonnes each.

Between them, the top 10 companies emit the same amount of carbon dioxide per annum as the entire UK.

As well as researching the 10 largest companies, The Green List also documented the carbon emissions of the FTSE 100 companies.

5 Nov 2007

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