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05 Jun 2014 0 Comment 3869 Views 3BL, Views , , ,

Divest from fossil fuels

— Claus Andersen

The estimated reserves of oil, gas and coal underground will, if extracted and burned, release 3,700-7,100 Gigatons CO2 (billion tons). However, only 550-1,270 Gigatons CO2 can be burned before 2050, since the United Nations has decided (!?) to keep the rise in temperature below 2°C. If the Divesting-from-Fossil-FuelsUN plan is followed, then only 8%-34% of the estimated reserves can be extracted and burned over the next 40 years. Many scientists believe that this assessment is overly optimistic. Subject to uncertainties, this is the basic challenge faced by the world leaders, the Fossil Fuel Companies and mankind. Given the huge investment costs of search and extraction of Fossil Fuels one would expect the search to fade out, but this doesn’t seem to be the case.

‘The Carbon Underground 200’ has identified the 100 largest public coal companies, and the 100 largest public oil and gas companies, based on estimates of the potential CO2 Emissions. In 2013 the total reported fossil fuel reserves of the 200 companies would, if extracted and burned, release 546 Gigatons of CO2 – and the reported volume has increased by 8.4% since 2010. The 200 Fossil Fuel Companies are listed below with the largest CO2-pollution potential first. Note that the 200 companies are publicly traded (investable) and only represent a small portion (17% has been suggested) of the “proven” fossil fuel reserves worldwide. The remaining reserves are considered less regulated and reported.

Since the “proven” reserves of fossil fuel, when burned, far exceed the volume of CO2 the earth can endure the next 40 years, one can conclude that investments in Fossil Fuel Companies are, either: 1) Unprofitable, or: 2) Morally shady. If you compare the listed Fossil Fuel Companies with the Climate Contributions per capita of their country of origin, you will find numerous climate-destructive alliances. An international campaign started by ‘350.org’ wisely argues for divestment from Fossil Fuel Companies – the focus of the campaign is pension funds, foundations, universities, insurance companies, etc.

Here’s how the list looks like:

_______________________________________________________

Gigatons Oil & Gas Coal
Public Fossil Fuel Companies CO2 Rank Rank
 .
1 Coal India Limited 57.72 1
2 Gazprom 43.54 1
3 Shenhua Group 31.52 2
4 Adani Enterprises Ltd 25.38 3
5 Shanxi Coking Coal 18.45 4
6 BHP Billiton 14.37  24 5
7 Anglo American plc 12.99 6
8 Inner Mongolia Yitai Coal 12.22 7
9 Datang International PG 12.21 8
10 China National Coal 12.07 9
11 Rosneft 12.04 2
12 Peabody Energy 11.47 10
13 Glencore Xstrata 10.45 11
14 Datong Coal Mine 10.28 12
15 Yanzhou Coal Mining 9.80 13
16 Public Power 9.34 14
17 Exxaro Resources 8.79 15
18 PetroChina 8.58 3
19 ExxonMobil 8.18 4
20 Yangquan Coal Industry 7.30 16
21 Lukoil 6.95 5
22 Mechel 6.74 17
23 Arch Coal 6.53 18
24 BP 6.40 6
25 Alpha Natural Resources 5.48 19
26 Petrobras 5.35 7
27 Mitsubishi 4.74 20
28 Royal Dutch Shell 4.47 8
29 Vale 4.40 21
30 Rio Tinto 4.34 22
31 Evraz 4.24 23
32 Chevron 4.14 9
33 Raspadskaya 4.08 24
34 Total 3.81 10
35 Novatek 3.78 11
36 Asian Ressource Minerals 3.18 25
37 UC RUCAL 3.08 26
38 Neyveli Lignite 3.04 27
39 Pingdingshan Tianan Coal 3.02 28
40 Cloud Peak Energy 2.88 29
41 Sasol 2.82  89 30
42 ConocoPhillips 2.73 12
43 Severstal 2.73 31
44 AGL Energy 2.70 32
45 Tatneft 2.69 13
46 Tata Steel 2.68 33
47 Teck Resources 2.60 34
48 ENI 2.56 14
49 Kuzbass Fuel 2.50 35
50 Polynus Gold 2.29 36
51 Energy Ventures 2.18 37
52 ONGC 2.15 15
53 Consol Energy 2.11 59 41
54 RWE 2.09  73 40
55 Whitehaven Coal 2.06 38
56 Banpu Minerals 2.04  39
57 Statoil 1.94  16
58 Washington H Soul Pattison 1.85 42
59 Resource Generation 1.82 43
60 PT Bayan Resources 1.81 44
61 Churchill Mining 1.75 45
62 NTPC 1.74 46
63 PT Adaro Indonesia 1.61 47
64 Sinopec 1.57 17
65 Nacco Industries 1.56 48
66 Idemitsu Kosan 1.53 49
67 CNOOC 1.52 18
68 Alliance Resource Partners 1.48 50
69 Huolinhe Coal 1.39 51
70 Coalspur Mine 1.38 52
71 Mitsui & Co 1.37 53
72 PT Golden Energy Mines 1.35 54
73 Coal of Africa 1.34 55
74 Novolipetsk Iron &Steel 1.29 56
75 BG 1.26 19
76 Occidental 1.25 20
77 Wesfarmers 1.09 57
78 Tata Power 1.06 58
79 Apache 1.05 21
80 Magnitrogorsk Iron & Steel 1.05 59
81 Sherritt International 1.01 60
82 Kazakhmys 1.00 61
83 Canadian Natural Resources 0.98 22
84 New World Resources 0.97 62
85 Anadarko Petroleum 0.90 23
86 Mongolian Mining 0.90 63
87 Devon Energy 0.89 25
88 Chesapeake Energy 0.89 26  64
89 Itochu 0.88
90 Bashneft 0.88  27 65
91 Westmoreland 0.86
92 Cockatoo Coal 0.85 66
93 Meijin Energy 0.78 67
94 Inpex 0.76 28
95 Jizhong Energy Resources 0.74 68
96 Ecopetrol 0.74 29
97 Bandanna Energy 0.73 69
98 Polo Resources 0.73 70
99 Allete 0.72 71
100 CLP Holdings of Hong Kong 0.70 72
101 Aspire Mining 0.67 73
102 EOG Resources 0.65 30
103 Walter Energy 0.64 74
104 Suncor Energy 0.64 31
105 Aquila Resources 0.63 75
106 Marathon Oil 0.62 32
107 Coal Energy 0.61 76
108 Hess 0.61 33
109 Imperial Oil 0.59 34
110 Encana 0.57 35
111 China Resources Power 0.57 77
112 Energi Mega Persada 0.56 36
113 PT Indika Inti 0.49 78
114 ArcelorMittal 0.46 79
115 First Energy 0.46 80
116 BASF 0.45 37
117 Repsol 0.45 38
118 Black Hills Power 0.43 81
119 Wescoal Holdings 0.43 82
120 Grupo Mexico SA de CV 0.42 83
121 OMV 0.41 39
122 Noble Energy 0.41 40
123 Woodside Petroleum 0.39 41
124 Pioneer Natural Resources 0.39 42
125 Linn Energy 0.38 43
126 African Rainbow minerals 0.38 84
127 Shanxi Coal I&E 0.38 85
128 Capital Power 0.37 86
129 Cenovus Energy 0.36 44
130 PTT Public 0.36 87
131 YPF 0.36 45
132 Range Resources 0.35 46
133 PTT 0.34 47
134 Lanhua 0.34 88
135 Husky Energy 0.33 48
136 Fortune Minerals 0.33 89
137 EQT 0.33 49
138 Cardero Resources 0.32 90
139 Zengzhou Coal Ind & EP 0.32 91
140 Continental Resources 0.31 50
141 Talisman Energy 0.31 51
142 Steel Authority of India 0.31 92
143 Jindal Steel & Power 0.30 93
144 Shougang Fushan Resources 0.30 94
145 KazMunaiGas EP JSC 0.30 52
146 Jingyuan Coal 0.30 95
147 Stanmore Coal 0.29 96
148 Prophecy coal 0.27 97
149 JX Holdings 0.27 53
150 Marubeni 0.27 98
151 WPX Energy 0.26 54
152 Cliffs Natural Resources 0.25 99
153 NSSMC 0.24 100
Santos 0.24 55
SK Innovation 0.23 56
QEP Resources 0.22 57
Southwestern Energy 0.22 58
Consol Energy 0.22 59
Cabot Oil&Gas 0.21 60
SandRidge Energy 0.21 61
Newfield Exploration 0.21 62
Murphy Oil 0.21 63
Dragon Oil 0.20 64
FreePort-McMoRan 0.18 65
Maersk Group 0.17 66
Concho Resources 0.17 67
Ultra Petroleum 0.17 68
Denbury Resources 0.17 69
GDF SUEZ 0.16 70
MEG Energy 0.16 71
Whiting Petroleum 0.15 72
RWE 0.15 73
MOL 0.15 74
Crescent Point Energy 0.15 75
Polish Oil & Gas 0.14 76
Mitsui 0.14 77
Penn West Petroleum 0.14 78
Pacific Rubiales Energy 0.13 79
Oil India 0.13 80
Climarex Energy 0.13 81
Energen 0.13 82
TAQA 0.12 83
Oil Search 0.12 84
ARC Resources 0.11 85
Canadian Oil Sands 0.11 86
Genel Energy 0.11 87
SM Energy 0.10 88
Sasol 0.09 89
National Fuel Gas 0.09 90
Tullow Oil 0.09 91
Pengrowth Energy 0.09 92
Xcite Energy 0.09 93
Vermillion Energy 0.08 94
Peyto E&D 0.08 95
Quicksilver Resources 0.08 96
Petroceltic International 0.08 97
Forest Oil 0.08 98
Tourmaline Oil 0.07 99
Bonavista Energy 0.07 100

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Source on global fossil fuel reserves: http://www.information.dk/493653 (refer to a draft from IPCC Working Group 3: http://mitigation2014.org/report/final-draft/

The Carbon Underground 200 (Fossil Free Indexes): http://fossilfreeindexes.com/the-carbon-underground-2014/ 
Article in The Guardian about the fossil fuel divestment campaign:http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/08/campaign-against-fossil-fuel-growing 
Stranded assets and the fossil fuel divestment campaign, pdf (University of Oxford):http://www.smithschool.ox.ac.uk/research/stranded-assets/SAP-divestment-report-final.pdf 
Carbon Tracker (identifying risk projects in the oil, coal and gas sectors):http://www.carbontracker.org/ 
Common Questions about Divesting Your Finances: http://gofossilfree.org/common-concerns-about-divesting-your-finances/
Other articles about the divestment movement (University of Wisconsin):http://www.uwosh.edu/es/climate-change/divestment/other-articles-about-divestment

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The analysis and contentions made in the post are by the author. This post has been originally published on www.climatepositions.com

  

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