MISSION

The Climate Accountability Research Project is documenting the criminal and harmful activities of individuals who bear personal responsibility for climate disruption to hold them accountable for their climate crimes.

We pinpoint specific actions these individuals have taken to deliberately fund climate science denial, lobby against clean energy alternatives, disseminate misinformation, and downplay climate risk.

We will also lift up the defectors from within the fossil fuel industry – those who admit what they did was wrong and are working to atone for the harm they caused.

We aim to make the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure socially and politically unacceptable and to ensure that those responsible for that expansion are made to feel increasingly isolated and publicly known for their climate crimes.

Disclaimer:  

The information on this website is published for educational purposes.  We reject the use of CARP research for purposes of harassment and violence against anyone.  We support nonviolent witness and protest with the goal of promoting legal and voluntary changes in behavior. 

The individuals on our list have not yet been convicted of a crime. The CARP team prepares criminal complaints against individuals personally responsible for wielding power and influence to “run out the clock” of humanity’s response to catastrophic climate change. We believe that in a political and judicial system that is not captured by the fossil fuel industry, these individuals will be held to account.

METHODOLOGY

The 2024 Climate Criminals Top 24 list was selected from a vigorous nomination and research process. Our team of researchers, academics, and climate justice experts reviewed over 300 individuals engaged in deflection, denial, and delay. 

We solicited recommendations and nominations from dozens of organizations and activists in the field, compiling a list of over 300 individuals. These organizations include the Global Center for Climate Justice, Climate Defiance, Summer of Heat, Climate Clock, Greenpeace, Institute for Policy Studies, Center for Media and Democracy, and many others.

For 2024, we focused on North American climate criminals. Our panel of judges and advisors identified 40 finalists for their 2023-2024 actions in fostering climate denial, sowing doubt, blocking alternatives, and using their wealth, power, and position to delay action and run out the clock.  We focused on people where there were “Active Crimes in Progress”: individuals leading the construction of new fossil fuel infrastructure and actively lobbying against green energy and climate mitigation legislation.

We looked at their relationships to different sectors within the polluter industrial complex, (in)actions to address climate change, and public statements. We examined the exact role they play in the overall architecture of carbon capital by determining what part of the fossil fuel commodity chain they are connected to – do they extract? Finance? Transport? Distribute? Advertise? Celebrate? 

Then we charged them with climate crimes: What crimes are they committing against the Earth and future generations through their contribution to carbon emissions, deforestation, or pollution? Are they guilty of “money laundering” by directly financing fossil fuel projects or receiving money from fossil fuel companies? Are they guilty of “bribery” in the form of political influence or destructive grantmaking? Have they committed crimes against environmental justice communities or workers? Are they engaged in fraud through spreading disinformation or greenwashing? 

Many individuals on our list of climate criminals have been called out by the climate movement before, so we’ve also cataloged how and when activists have confronted and criticized these bad actors. Have they been interrupted on their way to deliver a commencement address? Protested at a company gala? Called out by another accountability campaign? We want to uplift how hard our movement is working to hold these climate criminals accountable.

We strive to be accurate in our reporting, but we inevitably might have made some mistakes. Please help us strengthen our work and alert us to any errors or important missing information. Email us directly at info@climatecriminals.org.

Frequently Asked QuestionS

  • We don’t think climate criminals should go to jail if they want to constructively be part of fixing the future. Our system of excessive incarceration has been abused by the powerful and harmed many innocent people. We encourage reparative justice options to the climate criminals including community service to communities that have been most harmed. 

    We want climate criminals to take personal responsibility for their role in delaying action on climate change. We want them to bring urgency to act at the speed of climate change to reduce emissions and shift course to avert the worst scenarios of present and future climate disruption. We want them to recognize the massive wealth they have made destroying the Earth and future possibilities and redirect it toward fixing the future. To atone for and repair their crimes, they must devote their lives to restitution and healing, including community service to communities that have been most harmed. 

  • Take Action! There are four actions we are urging you to take:

    1. Learn the Names of the Climate Criminals. Every time you suffer through a heat wave, flood, or wildfire smoke, we want you to think of the climate criminals. They chose this path for us. Every time you pay higher taxes to clean up from climate disasters, we want you to think: why aren’t the climate criminals paying for this? Tell your friends and neighbors about the climate criminals.

    2. Protest the Climate Criminals. When these climate criminals appear in public, let’s engage in nonviolent protest to hold them accountable. If a climate criminal comes to your community, organization, or college, let’s greet them with a friendly protest. Issue a CITIZEN’s WARRANT for their arrest. Show up with WANTED POSTERS. (Download some of ours here!)

    3. Join the Call for U.S. Congressional Leaders to Convene Hearings on Climate Crimes. We believe US lawmakers should subpoena the climate criminals and question them about their actions and inaction. Identify the individuals responsible for climate denial, delay, and blocking alternatives.

    4. Join the Global Citizens Call for an International Climate Crimes Tribunal. Sign our petition to the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands calling for investigation and prosecution of climate criminals. For every 10,000 signatures, we will send an updated communication.

  • We identified over 300 individuals who have played historical and present roles suggested by individuals and organizations that are actively working to avert climate catastrophe. We conducted extensive research into their backgrounds and the potential charges against them. Many of these individuals are “lifetime achievement” actors: those who have played a driving role over the last few decades. They will be part of a “Hall of Shame” recognizing their historic role. Based on our research, the 2024 Climate Criminals are committing “crimes in progress” and should be identified as enemies of the Earth.

  • We had to start somewhere. We focused our first year of research on North American climate criminals, as they are often international drivers of climate disruption. We hope to have a global climate criminal list in 2025. Please nominate international climate criminals for our 2025 awards.

  • They will be part of the Hall of Shame for their decades of climate crimes. This initial list is the 2024 Climate Criminals who are actively involved in crimes in progress, but there are plenty of individuals who are responsible for five decades of inaction. We are currently putting together the Hall of Shame and welcome your nominations HERE.

  • Many politicians are responsible for delaying action on climate change. But we are focused on who is DRIVING denial and delay. Who is working to capture our political system on behalf of the fossil fuel industry? Who is making decisions to support certain politicians and fund climate inaction? There will be plenty of politicians in the Hall of Shame. 

  • Yes and no. We are all responsible for doing our part to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, especially those of us in global northern industrialized countries whose prosperity and consumption have been fueled by a century of burning oil, gas, and coal. But certain individuals have had considerable power, agency, and wealth to promote climate denial, sow doubt about science, block alternatives, and delay action on climate change. They have locked our planet onto an ecological collision course.

  • The climate criminals here have worked to limit your choices. There is an important reason why you can’t take high-speed rail or purchase an affordable electric vehicle: for decades, these corporations (and the individuals who lead them) have actively worked to block green alternatives, oppose higher automobile emission standards, and thwart the transition to a green energy economy. They have used their power and lobbying clout to capture our political system and block policy changes that would have changed our national trajectory decades ago. They have knowingly profited from degrading and jeopardizing our planetary future.

  • Corporations are led by people who make choices. Within corporations, there are individual leaders and decision-makers with tremendous latitude and power to influence choices and directions for the company. Each of us must make ethical decisions and choices about how much we cooperate with harmful systems.