This original release of Carbon Majors was a first attempt at aggregating historical data by carbon producing entities at a company level. The work was unique in tracing the emission of greenhouse gases to the actual production of fossil fuels and therefore to the producing entities themselves.
Carbon Majors was initially released by Richard Heede of the Climate Accountability Institute (CAI) in 2013, comprising 90 entities spanning from 1854 to 2010. Since then, CAI released three updates in 2014, 2019, and 2020. In 2024, and in collaboration with CAI, InfluenceMap rereleased Carbon Majors as an online platform with annual database updates.
Carbon Majors originally selected companies who met a 8 million tonnes of CO2 production threshold.
Investor-owned companies (both public and private), state owned entities and nation states. Nation states are included in certain circumstances such as centrally planned economies with limited non-government producers, such as the Former Soviet Union until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, and coal-producing nations such as North Korea.
No starting year was set for production data, this is determined by the availability of production data for each entity.
The earliest data point is from 1854 for Westmoreland Coal Company.
Typically, data from the 1930s forward is mostly complete unless it’s the very early years of an entity’s existence. Production data gaps, typically from missing annual reports, are interpolated, which is noted. However, missing data, such as that from an entity’s early years, are not estimated. For more discussion of this see R. Heede’s 2014 paper “Carbon Majors: Methods & Results Report” available here.
Historic production of merged or acquired companies are attributed to the extant company. If a company divests producing assets, the subsequent annual reports will reflect the disposition of production assets. Multinational companies working in nations that nationalise assets typically report equity production quantities rather than total production from these fields. Equity production is attributed to the multinational operating companies. For more discussion of this see R. Heede’s 2014 paper “Carbon Majors: Methods & Results Report” available here.
Production data is often unavailable for the early years of an entity’s existence, but this only results in minor cases of under-reporting, since early production is dwarfed by later entity expansion. However, gaps in production data are interpolated (and noted). For more discussion of this see R. Heede’s 2014 paper “Carbon Majors: Methods & Results Report” available here.
Self-reported data is always preferred. This can include annual reports, filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, company histories, etc. Reputable third-party sources such as industry or governmental sources can also be used such as Oil & Gas Journal, Energy Intelligence Top 100 Oil, National Mining Association Coal mining data, and EIA International Energy Statistics.
Different types or "ranks" of coal can range significantly in carbon content. As a result, coal production is sub-categorized by rank. However, coal producers commonly report coal based on its utilization, such as thermal or metallurgical coal. Consequently, the six categories include the four ranks: anthracite, bituminous, lignite, and sub-bituminous, as well as the two utilizations: thermal and metallurgical." For more discussion of this see R. Heede’s 2014 paper “Carbon Majors: Methods & Results Report” available here.
The majority of emissions in the database (around 88%) are Scope 3 Category 11 ‘use of sold products’ which has been modified to quantify emissions from each producer’s net production of fossil fuels or cement. Emissions from crude oil purchased from other oil companies for use in company-owned refineries or marketed through its own distribution channels, or natural gas purchased for re-sale, or coal sold on behalf of other producers is therefore excluded. The focus is on tracing the carbon from the ground to the atmosphere by way of each entity’s net equity production of primary carbon fuels. The remaining emissions are Scope 1 direct operational emissions from flaring, venting, own fuel use, and fugitive methane.
Note that Scope 1 and Scope 3 cover only fossil fuel industry related activities; an entity's total Scope 1 and Scope 3 emissions may be higher.
For any inquiries, please contact info@carbonmajors.org.
