Chevron and Exxon could pay climate damages of more than $1 million for each household lost to the LA wildfires and have billions to spare, new Global Witness analysis reveals, after the US oil giants posted profit results today.
Chevron and Exxon announced combined 2024 profits of $51 billion. Just a quarter of this windfall could provide $1 million to every LA household whose home was destroyed in January’s record-breaking blazes.
The analysis follows a new study by World Weather Attribution showing that fossil fuel-driven climate change increased both the risk and intensity of the LA wildfires, and confirmation that 2024 was the hottest year on record.
But despite alarm from climate scientists over global heating and a surge in fossil fuel-driven disasters, Exxon and Chevron have continued to expand their oil production, with the firms producing +4% and +3% more in 2024 than they did in 2023, respectively.
Lela Stanley, Head of Fossil Fuel Investigations at Global Witness, said:
“As LA residents reel from the damage done to their city, it's important we point out who has been driving the fossil fuel pollution that is turbo-charging climate disasters.
“Big Oil bosses have worked with their friends in politics to bake dirty fossil fuels into our energy systems, block climate action, and spread lies about climate change to divide and distract us.
“Instead of accounting for our safety or the health of the planet, mega-rich oil firms like Chevron and Exxon are knowingly driving and profiting from the climate crisis. It's time they picked up the costs of repair.
“Just a quarter of these US oil giants’ annual profits could pay for $1 million payouts to each LA household that has lost a home. What’s small change to Big Oil could have a transformative effect on ordinary people’s lives.”
California-headquartered oil giant, Chevron, has so far only donated $1 million to LA wildfire relief efforts, less than Beyoncé pledged towards relief efforts personally.
Chevron has actively sought to avoid paying out in the wake of climate disasters like the LA wildfires, spending $30 million with the Western States Petroleum Association – one of the US’s largest fossil fuel trade groups – [PG3] lobbying against a Polluters Pay style bill.
The Polluters Pay Climate Cost Recovery Act, which they opposed, would have collected money from major fossil fuel companies to help California pay for the environmental damage caused by their products.
Notes to editor:
Methodology
- Economic values are taken from company reporting’ ExxonMobil Q4 2024 Earnings Release and Chevron Fourth Quarter 2024 Results
- Data on annual oil and gas production is sourced from Rystad Energy’s E+P company database
- The data on homes destroyed in the Eaton and Palisade fires was accessed from the California Natural Resources Agency GIS Portal on January 29, 2025. The dataset contains records of structural damage from fire incidents. To quantify the number of homes lost in 2025, we filtered records for structures classified as Single Residence or Multiple Residence and marked as Destroyed (50%) due to fire, excluding those categorized as Mixed Commercial/Residential. For Multiple Residence structures, we counted the reported number of units per building. If no value was recorded, we assumed a default of one unit. We calculated that 12,292 households were destroyed as of January 29.
