Jakarta – A recent international study published in Nature Journal revealed that three Indonesian fossil fuel companies—AlamTri Resources (formerly known as PT Adaro Energy Indonesia Tbk), PT Bumi Resources Tbk, and PT Pertamina (Persero)—are among the 180 carbon majors, or the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases that cause extreme heat waves.
The report, published on Wednesday, September 10, directly links corporate emissions to 213 heat waves around the world between 2000 and 2023. Ironically, just three Indonesian companies contributed enough to trigger 50 extreme heat events.
The data from this study show that, since the pre-industrial era (1850–1900), half of the increase in global heat wave intensity can be attributed to emissions from large fossil fuel companies. In fact, between 2000 and 2009, heat waves were 20 times more likely to occur than in the pre-industrial era. That figure jumped dramatically to 200 times more likely in the period 2010–2019.
Globally, nearly 500,000 people died as a result of heat waves between 2000 and 2019. This climate attribution study provides the first systematic chain of evidence linking the emissions of specific companies to extreme heat disasters.
“Depending on the company, their contribution could be significant enough to trigger between 16 and 53 heat waves that would have been impossible without climate change,” the report explained.
Criticism also came from international climate advocacy networks. Make Polluters Pay campaigner Cassidy DiPaola called the report irrefutable legal evidence.
“We can now point to specific heat waves and say, ‘Saudi Aramco did this. ExxonMobil did this. Shell did this.’,” she said, as quoted by Earth.org on Thursday, September 11. DiPaola also mentioned that in Indonesia, AlamTri, Bumi Resources, and Pertamina are also responsible.
“When these companies’ emissions alone are triggering heatwaves that wouldn’t have happened otherwise, we’re talking about real people who died, real crops that failed, and real communities that suffered, all because of decisions made in corporate boardrooms,” she said.
The study also highlights 14 giant global entities whose emissions are equivalent to those of 166 other large companies combined, including ExxonMobil and Saudi Aramco, which together account for about 30 per cent of cumulative anthropogenic CO₂ emissions since 1850.
This finding comes just weeks after the International Court of Justice ruled that fossil fuel production could be categorised as a violation of international law. As such, victims of climate disasters now have a legal basis to seek reparations.
“The bill is coming due, and it’s time these polluters pay for the damage they’ve done,” DiPaola concluded. (Hartatik)
Banner photo: Image generated by OpenAI’s DALL·E via ChatGPT (2025)
