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important to illuminate each company’s historic responsibilities in light of
opportunities to align investments, commitments, and strategies to the
objectives of the Paris Accord on Climate Change. I believe fossil fuel
companies have a unique and powerful role to play in acting to reduce
production of carbon, and therefore on emissions, in line with climate
stewardship, science, and survival.
Q4: What were the primary findings of the 2014 paper, “Tracing
anthropogenic carbon dioxide and methane emissions to fossil fuel and
cement producers,” that was published in Climatic Change?
A4:
That two-thirds of all carbon dioxide and methane emissions from fossil fuel
and cement sources since the Industrial Revolution has been traced to the
production activities of world’s ninety largest oil, gas, coal, and cement
companies.
Q5: How were you able to arrive at these findings, or what methods were used?
A5: I acquired annual data on each company’s production of oil, natural gas,
coal, and cement, chiefly from company 10-Ks (submitted to the Securities
and Exchange Commission), from company Annual Reports (issued to
shareholders and the public since the Securities Act of 1933 established
disclosure requirements), from company histories, or other reliable sources
of production data. This activity data was then run through a thorough set of
calculations based on a peer-reviewed methodology that accounted for and
deducted net non-energy uses of crude oil and natural gas liquids (for
petrochemicals, lubricants, road oil, waxes, and for fertilizer, carbon fibers,
steel-making, and pigments for non-energy uses of natural gas and coal) in
order to quantify how much carbon dioxide and methane emissions could be
attributed to each company’s carbon production. This was done for each
company and for each year of their documented production history going as
far back as historic records were available (to as early as 1854 for the U.S.based Westmoreland Coal Company).
Q6: Was this paper subject to peer-review? If so, could you please explain the
peer-review process?
A6: Yes. The methodology was originally developed in 2003 (see Q10) and
reviewed extensively by selected technical experts in 2012 & 2013, followed
by minor improvements to the methodology (estimates of emissions from
use of a company’s own fuel production was added). In addition, the
methodology and results were also extensively reviewed by anonymous
expert reviewers as part of the normal peer-review process conducted by
professional scientific journals.
Q7: Are there any internal or external corporate documents that have
subsequently verified the findings?
A7: Many of the oil and gas companies included in my analysis also (and
independently) report their CO2 and methane emissions to CDP, an
organization based in London that serves as the platform of corporate
reporting on energy and climate issues (CDP acts on behalf of financial
firms and investment companies with nearly $100 trillion in assets; see
cdp.net). All member companies report on direct operational emissions, and
several also report on estimated emissions from their carbon products. In
other words, many companies self-report on the same emission sources as