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.” According to the study, nearly 90% of the superconflictive companies are multinational corporations (MNCs), largely in high-income countries and China. “The most significant finding is that 50% of the conflicts with companies from the Global North occur in the Global South,” Llavero-Pasquina told Mongabay by email. “Conflicts with foreign companies have more impact and worse outcomes for local populations.” Many of the Global North MNCs operate in mining, fossil fuels and agroindustry, the study found. Moreover, most conflicts with foreign MNCs affect Indigenous groups, traditional communities and racially discriminated groups. “Conflicts with foreign MNC involvement report significantly more environmental, health and socioeconomic impacts,” Llavero-Pasquina wrote. The analysis also found that two-thirds of the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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