BRUSSELS/BERLIN, April 4 (Reuters) - The vast majority

of planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions since 2016 can be

traced to a group of 57 fossil fuel and cement producers,

researchers said on Thursday.

From 2016 to 2022, the 57 entities including nation-states,

state-owned firms and investor-owned companies produced 80% of

the world's CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and cement

production, said the Carbon Majors report by non-profit think

tank InfluenceMap.

The world's top three CO2-emitting companies in the period

were state-owned oil firm Saudi Aramco, Russia's

state-owned energy giant Gazprom and state-owned

producer Coal India, the report said.

Saudi Aramco declined to comment. Coal India and Gazprom did

not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The report found most companies had expanded their fossil

fuel production since 2015, the year when nearly all countries

signed the U.N. Paris Agreement, committing to take action to

curb climate change.

Since then, while many governments and companies have set

tougher emissions targets and rapidly expanded renewable energy,

they have also produced and burned more fossil fuels, causing

emissions to rise.

Global energy-related CO2 emissions hit a record high last

year, the International Energy Agency has said.

InfluenceMap said its findings showed that a relatively

small group of emitters were responsible for the bulk of ongoing

CO2 emissions, and it aimed to increase transparency around

which governments and companies were causing climate change.

"It can be used in a variety of cases, ranging from legal

processes seeking to hold these producers to account for climate

damages, or it can be used by academics in quantifying their

contributions, or by campaign groups, or even by investors,"

InfluenceMap Program Manager Daan Van Acker said of the report.

A previous edition of the Carbon Majors database was cited

last month in a legal case brought by a Belgian farmer against

French oil and gas company TotalEnergies. The farmer

argued that as one of the world's top 20 CO2-emitting companies,

TotalEnergies was partly responsible for damage to his

operations from extreme weather.

The database was first launched in 2013 by the non-profit

research organisation Climate Accountability Institute.

It combines companies' self-reported data on coal, oil and

gas production with sources like the U.S. Energy Information

Administration, national mining associations and other industry

data.

Carroll Muffett, CEO of the non-profit Center for

International Environmental Law said the database would improve

investors' and litigators' ability to track companies' actions

over time.