Emissions over years by carbon majors will continue impacting Earth’s environment for decades: Study

NEW DELHI: (Sep 24) Past emissions from carbon majors — the top 178 oil, gas, coal and cement producers — will continue impacting Earth’s environment for decades to come, according to a new study that emphasises the only stable future is one in which no fossil fuels are burned.

Dargan Frierson and Lauren Henrie from the University of Washington said that the environment will not revert to its old self, even if greenhouse gas emissions were to plummet tomorrow.

Carbon majors have historically emitted more than a trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide, a substantial portion of which will remain in the air, trapping heat, for millennia, they said.