Abominable greenhouse gas bookkeeping casts serious doubts on climate intentions of oil and gas companies

Abstract: The Paris Agreement aims to reach net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the second half of the 21st century, and the Oil & Gas sector plays a key role in achieving this transition. Understanding progress in emission reductions in the private sector relies on the disclosure of corporate climate-related data, and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is considered a leader in this area. Companies report voluntarily to CDP, providing total emissions and breakdowns into categories. How reliable are these accounts? Here, we show that their reliability is likely very poor. A significant proportion of Oil & Gas companies' emission reports between 2010 and 2019 fail a 'simple summation' mathematical test that identifies if the breakdowns add up to the totals. Companies' reports reflect unbalanced internal bookkeeping in 38.9% of cases, which suggests worryingly low quality standards for data guiding the private sector's contribution to halting climate change.