ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 looks at the investment component of the unequal ability to pollute. This chapter presents the findingss from a database which compiles information on several hundred wealthy individuals (mainly the executive team and directors) with shareholdings in the oil and gas companies with the largest historical emissions. They are members of a group I call the polluter elite. As decision-makers at these companies these individuals hold responsibility for the direct emissions from these companies’ operations, and therefore more historical responsibility for climate change. These findings contribute to existing debates which tend to compare emissions between countries rather than look at the unequal distribution of emissions within countries. The large investment emissions of the polluter elite mean they play a unique role in the Anthropocene.
