104 companies linked to 20% of global environmental conflicts, study finds

A recent study has found that just 104 companies, mostly multinational corporations from high-income countries, are involved in a fifth of the more than 3,000 environmental conflicts it analyzed.

The study examined 3,388 conflicts, involving 5,589 companies, recorded in the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas) as of October 2024. The atlas is the world’s largest database of environmental conflicts documented by researchers, activists, journalists and students, and it includes records of extractive, industrial or legislative projects, including mines and oil pipelines that organized groups contest on socioecological grounds.

The study’s author, Marcel Llavero-Pasquina, an EJAtlas coordinator, found that around 2%, or 104 of the 5,500+ companies, played a part in 20% of all analyzed conflicts. Llavero-Pasquina labels these companies, involved in at least seven conflicts each, as “superconflictive” because they’re “a significant driver of environmental injustice globally.”