NGOs note 28 new ‘carbon bomb’ projects since 2021

Over the past five years, 28 new “carbon bomb” projects have been launched across the globe, according to a report released by NGOs.

The report, which was released on Monday by a quartet of environmental nonprofits, details dozens of new fossil fuel extraction projects that have been launching since 2021, despite international efforts to stop using fossil fuels, which are known to have disastrous effects on the climate.

In a study article titled “carbon bombs,” oil, gas, or coal facilities that could produce more than a billion tonnes of CO2 over their lifetime were defined.

425 such projects were recorded at the time by the NGOs Lingo, Data for Good, Reclaim Finance, and Eclaircies.

According to the report, some 365 projects still produce more than one billion tonnes, with the decline from the total for 2021 being caused by operations that have either decreased or been re-evaluated.

That is in contrast to the International Energy Agency’s claim that meeting Paris Agreement goals for climate change was impossible to achieve in 2021 when it was stated by the agency.

In the landmark agreement reached in 2015, the goal was to reduce global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius (2. 7 degrees Fahrenheit) from the pre-industrial era.

Countries around the world agreed to start a phase-out of fossil fuels two years later at COP28.

The report notes that between 2021 and 2024, the 65 largest banks in the world provided more than $1.6 trillion to the businesses involved in the projects.

With $33.7 billion in funding 62 businesses, including Eni, ExxonMobil, and TotalEnergies, Barclays Bank is the most active in supporting the companies that make carbon bombs.

According to Louis-Maxence Delaporte, energy research manager at Reclaim Finance, one of the NGOs involved in the study, “major global banks are exacerbating climate change and future emissions by continuing to grant carte blanche to these fossil fuel companies that are destroying the planet.”

43% of “carbon bombs” are made up of China. Russia accounts for 9%, followed by the United States, who accounts for 5%.

The most of these projects are being carried out by Western oil majors, but CHN Energy and Aramco in China and Saudi Arabia produce the most total emissions.

More than 2,300 smaller extraction projects, approved or in operation since 2021, whose potential emissions exceed five million tonnes of CO2 each, making that figure equal to Paris’ annual emissions, are also included in the report.