THE Big Five oil companies must pay up to $65 billion (£57bn) in climate damages every year based on their past emissions, campaigners revealed today.

Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, Shell and Total are responsible for more carbon emissions than most countries on Earth put together, according to Britain campaign group Global Justice Now’s research — which was released ahead of the finance day at Cop27.

The campaign group is calling for the corporations to pay “the lion’s share” of the climate reparations bill being discussed at the climate summit in Egypt through a pollution tax.

According to its research, the companies are collectively responsible for 11.38 per cent of global historic CO2 emissions.

Based on estimates of likely damage from climate change, campaigners believe these corporations should be on the hook for between $33-$65 bn (£29-£57 bn) a year of critical loss and damage funding to the global south by 2030.

BP alone should be responsible for between $7-$13bn (£6-£11bn) with Shell responsible for $6-$12bn (£5-£10.5bn) a year by 2030, the group has calculated.

The Big Five have collectively brought in over $170bn (£149bn) in profit over the last 12 months.

Global Justice Now director Nick Dearden said: “Our planet is rapidly overheating, disasters are proliferating, and lives are being lost because governments have failed to take on the fossil fuel industry, stop them from burning fossil fuels and make them pay for the pollution they have caused.

“The really shocking thing is that those facing the worst impacts are those who have done the least to create the problem, while those in the driving seat — like the biggest oil corporations — are raking in unprecedented profits.”

Mr Dearden said that the money is “in the hands of those who created this crisis.”

He said: “They must clean up the mess. They must be forced to pay — through pollution taxes — for the damage they have caused, often knowingly.

“And we need to make headway on this urgently because the problem won’t go away.

“The longer we leave it, the bigger the cost of climate disasters is only going to get.

“This is an investment in a habitable, safe and secure future.”