We must stop mining fossil fuels today if we really want to limit the global temperature rise to 1,5 ° C
We must stop extracting fossil fuels from underground today if we really want to limit the global temperature rise to 1,5 ° C: the good intentions of governments are not supported by concrete commitments, according to this study.
A large portion of the fossil fuel reserves owned today by nations and oil companies should remain crammed underground if we are to end the climate crisis. In fact, a new study has shown that 90% of current coal reserves and 60% of gas reserves should not be extracted to have a 50% more chance of limiting the global temperature increase to that 1,5, XNUMX ° C foreseen by the Paris Climate Agreements.
This is the first scientific study that lays bare the strong discrepancy between the commitment signed by the various global powers in Paris and the concrete expansion plans of the fossil fuel industry: the situation, according to scientists, is desperate.
(Read also: Climate crisis: this is the date of the point of no return. The ultimatum launched by UN experts)
According to the study, the United States, Russia and countries belonging to the former Soviet Union, holders of half of the world's coal reserves, should keep 97% underground (the ceiling set for Australia is 95%). China and India, which have a remaining quarter of the world's coal reserves, should keep 76% underground. The countries of the Middle East, on the other hand, hold more than half of the world's oil reserves, but at least two thirds of these need to remain underground; Canada must leave 83% of its oil resources untouched. Finally, no type of fossil fuel should be extracted from the Arctic subsoil.
The situation is critical: wherever in the world oil or other fossil fuel deposits are discovered, governments, forgetting their commitment to the climate, immediately begin to extract it from the ground as soon as possible - denounce the authors of the study. - But fortunately there is a positive side: if we stop today, switching to renewable and sustainable forms of energy, the ambitious goals against the climate crisis can be achieved.
This study used a complex model of energy use on a global scale that prioritized fossil fuels that were easier and cheaper to extract, such as Saudi oil - reserves of fuels that are very difficult and expensive to use, such as oil found in China. Venezuela or Canada have been left out of the model. Other variables were also included in the model, such as the costs that each nation would have to incur to switch to alternative forms of energy. The proportions of non-renewable resources that cannot be extracted, which emerged from this analysis, are much higher than those disseminated by a similar study conducted in 2015 - this is because the cap on global temperature increase has been lowered from +2 ° C to + 1,5 ° C.
@ Fossil fuel reserves by 2050 and 2100 that cannot be extracted to keep global temperatures rising within + 1,5 ° C (@ Nature)
The study underlines how the rhetoric of the fight against climate change implemented by governments is light years away from the reality of the facts: no country is taking concrete steps to cut production in the use of polluting energy. In a sustainable future there is no longer room for fossil fuels: the shift to alternative energies must be accelerated if we are to maintain human activities today and protect our well-being tomorrow.
Follow us on Telegram | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | Youtube
Source: Nature
We also recommend:
- Britain wants to bring a ban on fossil fuel-powered vehicles to 2030
- Thus global warming is also extinguishing the Emperor Penguin
- Melting glaciers are deforming the earth's crust: the side effect of the climate crisis just discovered by scientists
