At least an estimated 360,000 people could die prematurely before the end of the century because of global heating caused by a single year of greenhouse gas emissions by nine major European oil and gas companies, according to a Greenpeace Netherlands study.
The study analyses the self-reported 2022 greenhouse gas emissions of nine major European oil and gas companies: Shell, TotalEnergies, BP, Equinor, Eni, Repsol, OMV, Orlen, and Wintershall Dea. Using the Mortality Cost of Carbon method developed by researcher R. Daniel Bressler, it estimates that these companies could collectively cause at least an estimated 360,000 premature deaths before the end of the century with their emissions of 2.7 billion metric tons of CO2 from 2022 alone.
Greenpeace Netherlands has asked criminal lawyers from the UK, Italy, France, Netherlands, and Czechia whether there could be legal basis to prosecute fossil fuel companies for endangering human life and the environment under their respective national criminal laws.
The analysis, ‘Climate Homicide: Are fossil fuel companies getting away with murder?, elaborates on the concept of “climate homicide” based on the analysis of criminal lawyers in selected European countries and explores some legal avenues under national criminal law.