<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/08/climate-crisis-fossil-fuels-ground>
"The vast majority of fossil fuel reserves owned today by countries and
companies must remain in the ground if the climate crisis is to be ended, an
analysis has found.
The research found 90% of coal and 60% of oil and gas reserves could not be
extracted if there was to be even a 50% chance of keeping global heating below
1.5C, the temperature beyond which the worst climate impacts hit.
The scientific study is the first such assessment and lays bare the huge
disconnect between the Paris agreement’s climate goals and the expansion plans
of the fossil fuel industry. The researchers described the situation as
“absolutely desperate”.
“The [analysis] implies that many operational and planned fossil fuel projects
[are] unviable,” the scientists said, meaning trillions of dollars of fossil
fuel assets could become worthless. New fossil fuel projects made sense only if
their backers did not believe the world would act to tackle the climate
emergency, the researchers said.
The conclusions of the report are “bleak” for the fossil fuel industry,
implying that oil, gas and coal production must have already peaked and will
decline at 3% a year from now. States that are heavily reliant on fossil fuel
revenue, such as Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, are at especially high risk. A
minister from one Opec state recently warned of “unrest and instability” if
their economies did not diversify in time."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
