FIVE COMPANIES in Britain produce more carbon dioxide pollution together than all the motorists on U.K. roads, according to new figures that reveal heavy industry's contribution to climate change.

A league table compiled by The Guardian identifies EON U.K., the electricity generator that owns Powergen, as Britain's biggest corporate emitter of greenhouse gases. It produced 26.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide last year — slightly more than Croatia did. The figures, which have prompted new calls for tighter restrictions on corporate pollution, show that efforts by individuals and households to cut their carbon footprints will make little difference unless accompanied by greater action by industry. A 1 per cent increase in the efficiency of the giant Drax power station in North Yorkshire, in the northeast of England — the largest in Europe and the single biggest polluting site in the U.K. — would save the typical carbon emissions of 21,000 households. Drax alone produced 20.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide last year.

The top five companies (EON UK, RWE Npower, Drax, Corus, and EDF) produced between them more than 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2005. On average, the U.K.'s 26 million private cars produce 91 million tonnes each year.

The carbon dioxide emissions of more than 700 industrial sites across Britain are contained in figures released on Monday by the European Commission. They detail the U.K.'s participation in the first phase of a Europe-wide scheme intended to tackle climate change by capping the amount of carbon the heaviest polluters can emit. Companies failing to hit a target — applying to emissions from onsite activities such as combustion only — must buy permits to pollute from rivals that have successfully cut emissions. Critics said the first phase of the trading scheme has made global warming worse by giving European companies more permits than needed.

Hundreds of U.K. companies are excluded from the scheme — because they are not classed as big polluters or because they participate in a parallel system run by the Government. Figures from these firms have been obtained by The Guardian under freedom of information laws. They show that dozens of household names produce more than many small countries.

British sites operated by Tesco supermarkets, Ford, Unilever, Kellogg's, Allied Bakeries, Nestle and Cadbury Trebor Bassett are among those that emitted more than 100,000 tonnes of CO2 in 2004 — more than that of Vanuatu, the Pacific state where 100 people became the first official climate refugees when they were moved from their coastal village in December.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006