“Implicit Climate Subsidy Exceeds Profits at 20 Top Fossil Fuel Companies”

A week ago, I published a research paper, along with my colleagues Paul Gilding and Jimena Alvarez. For 20 leading fossil fuel producing firms, we measured the economic cost to society of the climate change impacts caused by the use of their products, and compared this with their profits in each year from 2008 to 2012. Because the companies presently don’t have to pay for these climate impacts, we view this as an implicit subsidy to the companies…[T]he economic cost to society of the CO2 emissions from the products they sell was greater than their after‐tax profit, with the single exception of Exxon Mobil in 2008. For pure coal companies (Coal India, Peabody, Shenhua Group, and China Coal) the economic cost to society exceeded total revenue in all years…We are keen to have your comments and take part in a discussion about the meaning of the results…[also refers to BHP Billiton, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Consol Energy, Eni, Gazprom, Lukoil, Occidental Petroleum, Pertamina, Petrobras, PetroChina (part of China National Petroleum Corporation), Royal Dutch, Statoil, Total]