Top 20 Private Equity Firms' Energy Assets Emit 1.5 Billion Tonnes Of Greenhouse Gases Annually

The energy portfolios of the world's top 20 private equity firms produce 1.5 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually, according to a new report by the Private Equity Climate Risks Consortium. This exceeds the yearly emissions of every country except China, the US, India and Russia.

Together, these firms manage $7.3 trillion in assets and hold significant fossil fuel infrastructure including 15,000 miles of pipelines, 124 GW of power generation capacity across 370 fossil fuel plants, and hundreds of oil and gas fields. The analysis found their energy investments continue to include natural gas and coal-fired power plants that supply electricity to data centres.

Half of the top 10 US data centre owners are backed by private equity. Researchers noted that private equity had funded more than $1 trillion in fossil fuel assets since 2010, though the exact amount invested in fossil fuels by the 20 firms studied could not be calculated due to data gaps.