The Missing GHG Emissions: How Satellite Data Can Quantify the Real Climate Risk of Oil & Gas Companies

Less than 10% of companies report Scope 3 investment emissions data

While a growing number of companies disclose sustainability-related information, there are still challenges around data completeness, consistency, and transparency. For example, all publicly traded Oil & Gas companies listed in the MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) report their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Still, over 90% of these companies do not incorporate the Scope 3 emissions from their investments in their reports.

Leveraging our collaboration with Climate TRACE, we have analyzed the largest 20 companies in the Oil & Gas industry, quantifying GHG emissions from all physical assets, including their minority investments. Our research found that the relative ranking of these companies in terms of carbon intensity is significantly affected by the inclusion or exclusion of the assets they own but don’t operate.

Additionally, we assessed the impact of these “missing emissions” on the carbon footprint of a theoretical portfolio investing in the largest 20 Oil & Gas companies — the carbon footprint increases by 24% when emissions from these assets are included.

Download the whitepaper to:

• What oil & gas companies are reporting
• The issues that unreported data can generate for investors
• How it is possible to fill the reporting gap with asset-level inventories