178 Fossil Fuel Giants Have Already Locked In Centuries of Warming

The vast majority of planet-warming emissions come from just 178 oil, gas, and cement companies known as the “carbon majors.” Even if these companies stopped emitting tomorrow, the carbon they’ve already spewed into the atmosphere will continue heating the planet for centuries to come.

That’s according to a study published today in the journal PLOS Climate. As Earth’s average temperature careens toward 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) of warming above pre-industrial levels, the findings underscore the urgent need to cut emissions from the carbon majors as quickly as possible.

A whopping 50% of these emissions were produced after 1986, when the relationship between greenhouse gases and global warming was already well established. That is “unbelievable,” lead author Dargan Frierson, an associate professor of atmospheric and climate science at the University of Washington, told Gizmodo.