Amicus Curiae Brief presented by
ClientEarth
21 November 2016
Protocol).78 It is therefore appropriate to impute control over the emissions of
subsidiaries, and their consequent climatic impacts, to the parent company.
7.2 Emissions from operations and products to date
101.
The Commission has before it detailed evidence of the previous activities of the
Carbon Majors, in the form of the thorough expert evidence of Richard Heede of the
Carbon Accountability Institute. This work is the only example of research linking
anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions since 1850 to the operations and products
of private actors.
102.
The key finding of the research is that greenhouse gas emissions totalling 914.3
Gt of carbon dioxide equivalent produced between 1854 and 2010 can be traced to
the operations and products of the 90 Carbon Major groups of companies included in
the analysis.79 This is the equivalent of approximately 63 per cent of the estimated
global greenhouse gas emissions since 1754, based on total global estimates
produced by the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, of the US Department
of Energy (see Annex D to the Petition).
103.
Of the 90 Carbon Majors included in the original study, 51 of those privately
owned groups of companies have been included in the scope of the Petition. Subject
to the Commission's acceptance of the evidence presented in this analysis, it can
conclude that the operations and products of the 51 companies named in the Petition
78
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol is the international standard by which most companies calculate and report on greenhouse gas emissions from their
operations and products. The Protocol divides emissions into three categories, scope 1, being direct emissions from activities, scope 2 being emissions
from electricity used by corporate operations, and scope 3 being the full emissions of the company's products throughout their life-cycle. For details see
the http://www.ghgprotocol.org/
79
Heede, R, 'Carbon Majors: Accounting for Carbon and methane emissions 1854-2010: Methods and Results report', in Annex D3 to the Petition.
49
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