It is the largest CO2 emissions database linked to the industrial sector ever created. And it reveals an incontrovertible figure: from 1988 to 2015, 25 fossil fuel producers are responsible for 51 per cent of global emissions. The names are the usual suspects: ExxonMobil, Shell, BHP Billiton and Gazprom, Total; while in terms of state-owned companies, the list extends to Saudi Aramco, Gazprom, Shenhua Group and China National Coal Group, among many others.

These figures have been made public by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) which, through the Carbon Majors report, reveals how 100 companies linked to the extraction and production of fossil fuels are responsible for 71 per cent of global emissions from 1988 to the present day. This means that in the past 28 years more greenhouse gases have been emitted than in the preceding 237 years — taking 1751 as the birth year of the Industrial Revolution. 833 billion tonnes of CO2, against the 820 billion released over the previous two centuries.

CO2 emissions: 28 years equal to the previous 2 centuries

"This groundbreaking report highlights how a relatively small group of 100 fossil fuel producers could play a key role in the systemic change of carbon emissions," said Pedro Faria, technical director of CDP, in an official statement. "We are seeing changes in policy, innovation and the financial world towards a low-carbon transition, and this data shows how important the role of major carbon emitters and those who own them really is."

And the projections highlighted by the report are far from optimistic: if the trend continues over the next 28 years, global average temperatures would rise by 4°C by the end of the century. The worst-case scenario. "The report shows that investors in fossil fuel companies have inherited almost a third of all industrial greenhouse gas emissions and have influenced the production of more than a fifth of global industrial emissions," Faria concluded.

"We urgently need to mitigate emissions from agriculture, industry and households, and to establish a national energy plan targeting 100 per cent alternative energy with investment in renewables and energy efficiency, with binding CO2 reduction targets and the gradual phasing out of fossil fuels," says the Federazione dei Verdi in a statement. "Furthermore, it is necessary to aim for a ban on diesel and petrol engines from 2030 onwards."

All the more reason for the major companies linked to oil, coal and gas to necessarily push towards a low-carbon economy, making even drastic choices that set a new course for the global energy system. Their own interests depend on it — and above all, so do those of the rest of the world's population.