Although scientists keep insisting that the planet needs to move away from its dependence on oil, gas and coal to effectively combat climate change, hydrocarbon development projects continue to emerge. Several countries, cities and NGOs are calling for a non-proliferation treaty on fossil fuels.
Within the next few years, multinational companies such as Qatar Energy, Gazprom, Saudi Aramco, ExxonMobil, Petrobras, Turkmengaz, TotalEnergies, Chevron and Shell are planning to open new gas and oil production sites. These projects alone could put a strain on the carbon budget available to limit the effects of global warming.
In a report unveiled on Wednesday at COP27, the US NGO Oil Change International revealed that new fossil fuel projects approved, or in the process of being approved between 2022 and 2025, could lead to 70 billion tonnes of CO2 being emitted into the atmosphere over the course of their operation. Projects approved in 2022 alone are responsible for 11 billion tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of China’s annual emissions.
One of the projects that the NGO is targeting is TotalEnergies’ oil extraction mega-project in Uganda, which is due to be operational by 2025. The French company plans to drill 400 wells and export the oil through the huge EACOP pipeline. These two projects combined will be responsible for emitting more than 34 million tonnes of CO2 per year.
‘Some 90 percent of CO2 emissions linked to fossil fuels’
However, for several years now, scientists have been hammering home that the only way we will achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 — the target set by the European Union — is if we move away from our dependence on oil, gas and coal. “Some 90 percent of the CO2 emissions emitted by humans are linked to fossil fuels,” says Jean-Marie Bréon, a climatologist at the Climate and Environmental Sciences Laboratory. The remaining 10 percent is linked to
