Oil Firms Could Waste Trillions If Climate Targets Reached: Report

More than $2 trillion of planned investments in oil and gas projects by 2025 risk becoming redundant if governments stick to targets to lower carbon emissions to limit global warming to 2 degrees celsius, according to a report by the Carbon Tracker thinktank and a group of institutional investors.

The report analyzed the costs of oil and gas projects planned for approval by 69 companies into 2025.  It then compared their carbon intensity to targets needed to meet the 2 degree limit set by the 2015 Paris agreement, which would lead to a decline in fossil fuel consumption.

According to the report, Exxon, the world's top publicly-traded oil and gas company, risks spending up to half its budget on new fields that will not be needed.  Shell and France's Total would see up to 40 percent of their budgets outside the limits.

Fossil fuel companies have come under growing pressure from investors to reduce carbon emissions and increase transparency over future investments.

Sweden's largest national pension fund, AP7, one of the authors of the report, said last week it had wound down investments in six companies, including Exxon, that it says violate the Paris climate agreement.

The world's top fossil fuel companies have voiced support for the Paris agreement reached by nearly 200 countries.  Many of them have urged governments to impose a tax on carbon emissions to support cleaner sources of energy such as gas.

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