SMOKE AND FUMES 29 APPENDIX III A Note on Industries and Companies Addressed in this Synthesis The documents referenced in this synthesis report offer insights into specific activities undertaken by leading oil companies and petroleum industry groups, including all five of the largest investor-owned oil companies as measured by aggregate emissions. This report focuses almost exclusively on the oil and gas industries and particularly on companies headquartered in or with substantial operations in the United States. This emphasis arises from the greater availability of public information regarding industry research activities and engagement on denial efforts in the United States; and the historically smaller number of very large actors in the oil and gas industry as compared to coal or cement industries. A detailed discussion of these factors follows. (1) Climate misinformation campaigns have been actively carried out for many years in Australia, the United Kingdom, and across Europe. Based on the best information currently available, however, climate denial campaigns within the United States have been among the largest, longest-lived, and best funded such efforts on a global basis. As a result, they have drawn significantly more media and investigative attention than climate misinformation efforts, with the result that a much greater number of primary materials, including eyewitness accounts, are available for analysis. Additional investigation into the knowledge and conduct of major fossil fuel producers and related industry groups in other countries and regions is warranted. (2) For the first six decades of twentieth century, the global oil and gas industries were vertically integrated and heavily concentrated among a very small number of companies that exercised substantial control over all phases of research, exploration, production, transportation, refining, and marketing of petroleum and petroleum products on a global basis. These companies—known colloquially as the Seven Sisters, and comprised of five US-based companies, plus BP and Royal Dutch Shell—routinely entered into partnerships and joint ventures in countries around the world. As a result, the largest oil and gas companies evinced a greater than usual degree of coordination and collaboration than was common in many other industries. Beginning in the 1960s, waves of nationalization by oil-rich countries reduced industry concentration and control to a significant degree. Since the 1970s, states and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have accounted for a significant proportion of oil reserves and production (thus the representation of SOEs among the Carbon Major respondents). Nonetheless, the largest oil companies remained key service providers in the oil exploration and production space; and waves of mergers and acquisitions again reduced the number of key investorowned companies in the industry from the 1980s onward. Throughout recent decades, the leading investor-owned oil companies have remained key players in the exploration and opening of new oil and gas frontiers, the provision of advanced production technologies and techniques to national oil companies and state-owned enterprises, and the marketing of petroleum products in the United States, Europe, and worldwide. (3) The oil industry began operating internationally very early in its history. Consequently, almost all of the largest US-based firms operated internationally. Correspondingly, the largest investorowned oil companies from Europe, including notably BP and Royal Dutch Shell, maintained significant commercial ties with and operations within the United States. As a result, BP and Royal Dutch Shell, or their corporate predecessors, do appear regularly in documents and research originating in the US. Further, documents addressed in the report periodically address the international role or operations of the US-based Carbon Majors, such as ExxonMobil and Chevron. (4) Notwithstanding the smaller size of individual coal companies relative to the largest oil and gas companies, particularly in the United States, coal companies exercised significant political influence in the United States throughout the twentieth century and into the twentyfirst. Documents disclosed during recent bankruptcy procedures indicate that at least three US-based coal companies among the respondents—Peabody Coal, Arch Coal, and Alpha Natural Resources—continued to fund climate misinformation efforts well into the present decade. Reputable news reports on these disclosures are cited in the synthesis. Given the comparative paucity of widely available public documents addressing the