Oil and gas exploration has surged to pre-pandemic levels this year, and Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Norway account for two-thirds of the new oil and gas licences since 2020, the International Institute for Sustainable Development revealed today.
This year’s increase in activity flies in the face of companies’ commitment at least year’s COP28 climate summit to embrace a transition out of fossil fuels, IISD says in a release.
“The new oil and gas field licences forecast to be awarded across the world this year are on track to generate the highest level of emissions since those issued in 2018, as heatwaves, wildfires, drought, and floods cause death and destruction globally,” the Guardian reports. IISD’s analysis of Rystad Energy data shows oil and gas companies pouring more investment into exploration and development than at any time since the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
“The 11.9 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions—which is roughly the same as China’s annual carbon pollution—resulting over their lifetime from all current and upcoming oil and gas fields forecast to be licenced by the end of 2024 would be greater than the past four years combined,” the Guardian writes.
“Ending oil and gas licencing is a logical next step in the transition to clean energy,” IISD policy advisor Olivier Bois von Kursk said in the release. “Governments need to put the COP28 agreement into practice—particularly those with the wealth to drive investment into more sustainable sectors.”
