The world’s reserves of fossil fuels contain the equivalent of 3.5 trillion tons of greenhouse gases, which will be released if used, and will make it difficult to meet international climate goals, according to an unprecedented inventory to be published today.
This extraordinary amount corresponds to what would be released into the atmosphere if oil, gas and coal reserves were fully extracted and used, according to this world record, created by the Carbon Tracker and the Global Energy Monitor.
This equates to “more than all the emissions produced since the industrial revolution” and “more than seven times the carbon budget remaining to respect the 1.5°C (rise in) temperature limit”, the authors indicate.
The concept of “carbon budget” indicates the amount of CO2 that can be emitted for a given result, that is, the most ambitious target of the Paris Climate Agreement.
The warming of the planet since the industrial age, which was fueled by fossil energies, has already reached 1.1°C, causing a series of catastrophes.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) had suggested last year forgoing any oil or gas project to keep pace with a rapid decline in demand and keep global warming under control.
The registry – which contains data from more than 50,000 sites in 89 countries – aims to provide political leaders and civil society with the data needed to manage the phasing out of these fossil energies.
The record especially shows that the United States and Russia each have enough fossil fuel reserves to blow up the entire world’s carbon budget, even if all other countries immediately cease production.
It also identifies the most powerful source of emissions in the world: the Ghawar oil field in Saudi Arabia.
“The global registry will help governments, companies and investors to make decisions to bring their production of fossil fuels up to the temperature limit of 1.5°C and, in this way, concretely prevent the disappearance of our islands”, highlighted Simon Kofe. , Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tuvalu, one of the Pacific archipelagos threatened by rising water levels and global warming.
