Swift reductions in the burning of fossil fuels are necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change and meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. In May 2021, a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) found that if the world is to achieve Paris Agreement goals, construction of new oil and gas fields and coalmines must cease immediately. The Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published this year, states that carbon emissions must fall by half between now and 2030 to preserve a chance at a livable future. Regardless, emissions have not yet begun to decline. In fact, fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil and Gazprom have already made financial commitments to new projects that will deliver 192 billion barrels of oil to market. That is equivalent to a decade of today’s emissions from China, the world’s highest-emitting country. These new exploitation projects that have received investment from the fossil fuel industry are incompatible with preserving a stable climate and livable future for humanity. The Guardian has recently published investigative reporting on this phenomenon, quantifying the “carbon bomb” fossil fuel projects that threaten to push Earth past the threshold of climate catastrophe. Their article, “Revealed: the ‘carbon bombs’ set to trigger catastrophic climate breakdown,” can be found here.

Posted in Renewable Resources Report