Proactive Investors - An “insane” amount of fossil fuel expansion will blow climate change targets out of the water and even threaten humanity’s future, according to a new UN report.
Plans under development currently would see 460% more coal production, 83% more gas, and 29% more oil being utilised than agreed under an internationally agreed 1.5C target.
This level of fossil fuels would exceed what is necessary for a possibly catastrophic 2C target by 69%, the report added.
India, for example, plans to increase coal production tenfold.
Saudi Arabia, the US, Canada and Brazil are all set for major increases in oil output while Qatar, Russia and Nigeria are ramping up gas production.
The UAE, which is hosting the COP28 UN climate summit this month, is even aiming to expand its gas production two times by 2030.
“The addiction to fossil fuels still has its claws deep in many nations,” said Inger Andersen, the executive director of the UN environment programme.
“These plans throw humanity’s future into question. Governments must stop saying one thing and doing another.”
Ploy Achakulwisut, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) scientist and a lead author of the report added in a press briefing.
"Fossil fuel phase-out is one of the pivotal issues that will be negotiated at COP 28,"
"We need countries to commit to a phase-out of all fossil fuels to keep the 1.5C goal alive," she said.
Under the Paris pact of 2015, nations agreed to limit average temperature rises to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to attempt to limit them even further to 1.5C
Of twenty countries analysed, only four have plans that would lower overall emissions from the fossil fuels they produce: UK, China, Norway and Germany.
António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, said: “Governments are literally doubling down on fossil fuel production - that spells double trouble for people and planet. Fossil fuels are sending essential climate goals up in smoke.”