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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Damian Carrington Environment editor

‘Insanity’: petrostates planning huge expansion of fossil fuels, says UN report

Coal being loaded into a truck at an open-cast mine near Dhanbad, India
A coalmine near Dhanbad in India, the country with the highest projected carbon emissions from planned fossil fuel production, according to the UN report. Photograph: Altaf Qadri/AP

The world’s fossil fuel producers are planning expansions that would blow the planet’s carbon budget twice over, a UN report has found. Experts called the plans “insanity” which “throw humanity’s future into question”.

The energy plans of the petrostates contradicted their climate policies and pledges, the report said. The plans would lead to 460% more coal production, 83% more gas, and 29% more oil in 2030 than it was possible to burn if global temperature rise was to be kept to the internationally agreed 1.5C. The plans would also produce 69% more fossil fuels than is compatible with the riskier 2C target.

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