The Ukraine war has caused a “gold rush” for brand new fossil fuel projects, threatening to lock us into irreversible global warming, based on leading climate researchers.
A recent report from Climate Motion Tracker (CAT) has found that soaring energy prices within the wake of Russia’s invasion have caused more investment in oil and gas projects.
It spotlights a plethora of latest gas projects, a lot of which is able to not be inbuilt time to combat the present energy crisis. They are going to, nevertheless, increase emissions in the long run and lock us into carbon-intensive infrastructure for many years to return.
The report points to recent liquified natural gas (LNG) projects in Europe, specifically in Germany, Italy, Greece and the Netherlands.
As a part of its REPowerEU plan, the EU is betting on LNG to interchange the tens of millions of tonnes of gas it currently buys from Russia. As much as €12 billion has been put aside for gas pipeline and infrastructure projects to secure energy supplies while more renewables are built.
But CAT found that these projects could lead to the region’s gas supplies being increased by 25 per cent in comparison with what they were before reducing imports from Russia.
Export demands have also seen Canada, Finland and Estonia fast track recent LNG projects. Fossil fuel production has increased overall in Canada, the US, Norway, Italy and Japan for the reason that war broke out.
“The world missed the huge opportunity it had to make use of the post-pandemic recovery packages to support decarbonisation of their economies – and now it seems this can occur all once more, with this recent crisis,” says Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics, one among CAT’s partner organisations.
The world is locking fossil fuels at an important time
The latest IPCC report warned that it’s “now or never” for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, saying they have to peak by 2025. However the findings from CAT’s report show countries are as an alternative investing in additional fossil fuels at this important time.
“Something has to alter: we cannot go on responding to short term shocks, be they pandemics or energy shocks from conflict, by taking steps that will increase emissions, ignoring the looming crisis of climate change,” Hare says.
If plans for more fossil fuel projects go ahead, they are going to either find yourself as massive stranded assets or lock the world into “irreversible warming” based on CAT’s report.
The independent scientific assessment says that this goes against the clear agreement of the Glasgow Pact made at COP26 which agreed to update national 2030 climate targets in 2022.
