Australia's six largest coal, gas and oil-producing companies emitted more greenhouse gases in 2018 than the country's entire domestic economy, inflicting damage on the global environment, for which they should face partial accountability, a report released by the University of New South Wales said
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st November, 2019) Australia's six largest coal, gas and oil-producing companies emitted more greenhouse gases in 2018 than the country's entire domestic economy, inflicting damage on the global environment, for which they should face partial accountability, a report released by the University of New South Wales said.
"In 2018, emissions produced from the coal extracted by Australia's top six coal producers (551Mt CO2-e), were greater than the whole of Australia's projected domestic emissions (534Mt CO2-e) for 2018," the report said.
The top six coal producers, referred to as "Australia's carbon majors" in the report, are BHB Billiton, Glencore, Yancoal, Peabody, Anglo American and Whitehaven.
When four other major carbon producers in Australia� � Chevron, Woodside, ExxonMobile and Santos � were added to the list, the 10 polluters' combined emissions were found to be 670 million tonnes a year, which was equivalent to about 75 percent of global air traffic, the report said.�
Jeremy Moss, the report's lead author, said that the fossil fuel companies were not fully responsible for the consequences of their emissions, as nation states were typically held accountable for reducing greenhouse gases. However, seeing as the carbon majors were contributing so much to polluting the environment, especially in light of recent global mobilization efforts to reduce such emissions, now was the time to take action.
"The impact of carbon majors is now so large and their influence so great that the case for holding them responsible for the consequences of their emissions must now be made." the report said.
The report outlined key recommendations for carbon majors to consider to reduce future emission output � to retire old fossil fuel mines and not resell them to other companies; to set aside funds to rehabilitate major carbon sites; to introduce compensation mechanisms to address past emission output since 1990; to refrain from searching for new mines; to refrain from lobbying in favor of fossil fuels and to phase out fossil fuel operations.
In July, BHP's chief executive, Andrew Mackenzie, called for drastic action on climate change and said his company would spend $400 million to develop technologies to cut emissions from its operations and its customers, setting a goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. �
