In a new report, Climate Criminals 2025: Payback for Fossil Fuel Oligarchs, the Climate Accountability Research Project (CARP) has identified 12 new “climate criminals” for 2025 who bear individual responsibility for delaying action on climate change and locking the US and planet Earth onto a trajectory to blow past 1.5 C (2.8 F) temperature rises.

CARP's website, climatecriminals.org, includes profiles of individuals and the charges against them. The 12 individuals have been selected from over 100 different candidates from the polluter industrial complex – a vast and sophisticated power web of ecologically destructive business sectors – including leaders of fossil fuel corporations, communication firms, major investors in new fossil fuel infrastructure projects, and think tanks promoting climate denial.

“These are the leading offenders who have used their personal wealth, power and position to: promote climate disinformation, engage in greenwashing, lobby for and implement new fossil fuel extraction projects, and delay public action on climate change. These are the top enemies of the earth,”

said Chuck Collins, founder of the Climate Accountability Research Project (CARP).

“The time has come for us to directly challenge the threats posed to the planet by the polluter-industrial complex and the world's worst climate criminals. Fortunately, we have the Climate Accountability Research Project to help lead the way. Let's join forces to create a more just and sustainable future for all of humanity,”

said Dr. Daniel Faber, Senior Research Fellow, Global Center for Climate Justice.

In the years to come, as society further awakens to the reality of climate disruption, the wider public and future generations will want to know “who was personally responsible?” There may be future trials and tribunals to investigate not just the politicians who did the bidding of the climate criminals, but the drivers of inaction and delay.

2025 Climate Criminals. These 12 individuals have been nominated as the top climate offenders in 2025. They have used their considerable clout and position within the polluter industrial complex to disseminate climate disinformation, obstruct policy responses, block alternative energy projects, and delay humanity’s response.

The 2025 twelve Climate Criminals are:

THE FOSSIL FUEL OLIGARCHS

Vicki Hollub, Occidental Petroleum’s President and CEO, opposes a transition away from fossil fuels and encourages investments into carbon capture technology for the purpose of continuing crude oil production. Hollub worked to organize and fundraise within the fossil fuel industry to elect Donald Trump and implement their agenda to rollback climate protection regulations and boost the oil industry. See her Climate Criminal profile HERE.

Richard Kinder is co-founder of Kinder Morgan, the largest natural gas pipeline operator in the US which “contribute to about 40% of the natural gas consumed in the U.S” through its ownership of or interest in roughly 83,000 miles of oil and gas pipelines. Kinder used his wealth, power and position to help elect Trump in 2024 and roll-back climate regulation, restrictions of use of public lands, and the lifting of a federal moratorium on LNG exports. See his Climate Criminal profile HERE.

Kelcy Warren is the billionaire chairman of Energy Transfer, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, and Trump mega-donor. He has been identified as a climate criminal for his company’s ecologically destructive pipelines and dangerous hazardous spills, filing SLAPP lawsuits against environmental groups and anti-pipeline protestors in attempts to silence opposition, and hiring a military contractor to infiltrate groups of peaceful protestors. See his Climate Criminal profile HERE.

Harold Hamm is founder of Continental Resources, one of the largest oil and fracking natural gas producers. With an estimated $18.5 billion in wealth, Hamm is “America’s richest oil man.” In 2024, he organized dozens of CEOs and billionaires in oil, gas, and coal sectors to capture the U.S. political system, elect Trump, buy off candidates in exchange for the rollback of anti-pollution measures. See his Climate Criminal Profile HERE.

Jim Grech is President and CEO of Peabody Energy and a premiere “coal-i-garch” as the largest US coal producer. Grech used his power, wealth and position to elect Donald Trump president in 2024 and oversee an agenda to reassert coal and undermine renewable energy and climate regulation. See his Climate Criminal Profile HERE.

GOVERNMENT CAPTURE:

Doug Burgam is the former governor of North Dakota, the third most oil producing state in the country. As Secretary of the Interior, Burgum panders to the fossil fuel billionaires, opening up federal lands again to the fossil fuel industry and stood by the rollback of climate protection laws. He co-convened the April 2024 Mar-a-Lago dinner between Trump and oil executives, where the president-elect asked for $1 billion in campaign donations from the oil industry. See his Climate Criminal Profile HERE.

Lee Zeldin, now Trump’s appointed head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has a long track record of berating environmental protection efforts. As a member of Congress representing New York’s first district, Zeldin had a lifetime score of 14% from the League of Conservation Voters, voting against protecting the environment at least 164 times. In 2017, Zeldin voted to slash the EPA’s budget by $1.9 billion, or 25 percent. Now leading the nation’s environmental agency he is rolling back dozens of environmental protections, cancelling billions of dollar’s worth of grants, and eliminating hundreds of scientists and researchers. See his Climate Criminal profile HERE.

Timothy Dunn is the CEO billionaire of CrownQuest, a major oil and fracking company based in Texas. Worth an estimated $2.2 billion, Dunn was one of the top ten individual donors to Donald Trump, contributing $5 million through his company to a Trump SuperPAC to encourage executive orders, in his words, to “curb all this silliness about CO2 emissions.” See his Climate Criminal Profile HERE.

Lee Raymond, who spent 12 years as CEO of Exxon Mobile, has spent decades denying the scientific consensus on climate change. He facilitated his company pumping roughly 6 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere and funneled at least $19M to climate denialism organizations. He enters our lifetime Hall of Shame. See his Climate Criminal profile HERE.

THE ENABLERS:

Mark Read is the former CEO of WPP (as of Sept. 1, 2025), a large international advertising company with more oil & gas clients than any other public relations firm in the world. See his Climate Criminal profile HERE.

Kim Dennis is the Co-founder and Chair of DonorsTrust and the President/CEO of the Searle Freedom Trust, two of the main foundations funding right-wing, free market, climate change denying groups. See her Climate Criminal profile HERE.

Kim Koopersmith is the Chair Emeritus Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, which has been dubbed as the worst law firm offender due to its significant compensation from lobbying for fossil fuel interests. See her Climate Criminal profile HERE.

Read the full report: Climate Criminals 2025: Payback for Fossil Fuel Oligarchs.