The carbon emissions that would result solely form using fossil fuels from today’s fields and mines would send the world past 2 degrees Celsius of global warming, according to a study issued Thursday by Oil Change International. “The potential carbon emissions from the oil, gas, and coal in the world’s currently operating fields and mines would take us beyond 2°C of warming,” the report says, going on to note that “The reserves in currently operating oil and gas fields alone, even with no coal, would take the world beyond 1.5°C.”
The report compares the amount of carbon contained in the world’s known fossil fuel reserves, about 942 Gt CO2, with the carbon budgets for 1.5 and 2-degrees Celsius.
While drafting the international Pars Agreement on climate change in December 2015, negotiators set a goal of keeping global temperature rise “well below” 2 degrees and trying to keep it as close to 1.5 degrees as possible. Doing that, the report says, requires building no new fossil fuel extraction or transportation infrastructure. In addition, “[s]ome fields and mines – primarily in rich countries – should be closed before fully exploiting their resources, and financial support should be provided for non-carbon development in poorer countries.”
