Global warming is often framed in broad planetary numbers such as the 1.5 C warming threshold, inadvertently creating the false impression that individual corporations’ efforts to reduce emissions are meaningless in the absence of collective action. Reframing the issue to focus on the life-saving potential of individual corporate efforts, as well as the costs of inaction, empowers companies to act and holds them accountable for their continued pollution.

Here, we show the results from an innovative modeling technique which calculates the deaths that result from reported and projected corporate emissions for over 7,000 publicly listed companies. Our analysis shows that even some of the least polluting public companies will be responsible for one or more human deaths assuming no emissions reductions by 2050, and that the top polluters will be responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths.

We find that emissions reduction pledges from large polluters have the potential to save tens of thousands of lives for each individual company, and that smaller companies’ pledges will also save lives if implemented. Our analysis demonstrates corporate climate liability for nearly all publicly listed companies, highlighting the necessity of urgent action from corporate polluters.