Fossil Fuel Industry Must Halt Expansion

Analysis of fossil fuel projects shows that prospecting for new coal, oil and gas has to stop to prevent the planet overheating.

Governments need to call an immediate halt to new coal, oil and gas projects if the world is to meet its climate change targets, a new report concludes.

The expected carbon emissions resulting from existing mines and oil and gas fields could amount to 941 billion tonnes – almost 100 million tonnes above the target that underpinned last year’s Paris climate agreement.

The analysis by the campaign group Oil Change International, based on data provided by independent oil and gas consultancy Rystad Energy, is a direct challenge to countries such as the UK, which has just pushed through plans for new onshore fracking for shale gas in Lancashire, northwest England.

The warning comes just after 31 countries joined the US and China to ratify the climate change agreement at a ceremony in New York.

Major contradiction
The UK has said it will also ratify the deal before the end of this year, but Oil Change International says its latest analysis points up a major contradiction.

“If the world is serious about achieving the goals agreed in Paris, governments have to stop the expansion of the fossil fuel industry,” says Stephen Kretzmann, executive director of Oil Change International.  “The industry has enough carbon in the pipeline – today − to break through the sky’s limit.”

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