In a new report titled “Planet Wreckers: How 20 Countries’ Oil and Gas Extraction Plans Risk Locking in Climate Chaos” published by Oil Change International, the United States was responsible for over one-third of the oil and gas expansion globally.
While the International Energy Agency said that all global gas and oil exploration had to end to stay under the 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, “the greenhouse gas emissions from all the planned expansions would be enough to push global temperatures” above the threshold set at the 2021 Cop26 climate conference, Causes.com reported.
While the U.S. is the frontrunner when it comes to the size of new oil and gas plans, Canada, Russia, Iran, China, Brazil and United Arab Emirates are consecutive on the list.
The Lancet Planetary Health reported that the U.S., Canada, Australia, Norway, and the U.K., will be responsible for over half of all new gas and oil project expansion by 2050 as these countries, and additional countries in the Global North, make up 92 percent of global carbon emissions.
“It’s simple: when you are in a hole, the first step is to stop digging,” Romain Ioualalen, from Oil Change International, said. “The climate crisis is global in nature, but is atrociously unjust. A handful of the world’s richest nations are risking our future by willingly ignoring the calls to rapidly phase out fossil fuels.”
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