WaPo: These 14 fossil-fuel projects could make our climate goals impossible

[wtmusic]

"If we want to avoid severe global warming, we’ll have to stay within a strict carbon budget in the decades ahead. That won’t be easy. There are already 14 major fossil-fuel projects being planned worldwide with the potential to blow past that budget, a new report argues.

The key word here, however, is “potential.” The report (pdf), from Greenpeace and Ecofys, identifies 14 of the largest fossil-fuel projects in development. That includes China’s big coal-mining plans for its western provinces; proposed oil and gas drilling in the Arctic; the revival of Iraq’s oil industry; and the current tar-sands boom in Canada. It also includes slated increases in coal exports from Indonesia, Australia and the United States.

In theory, the climate implications could be quite significant. The International Energy Agency estimates that the world can only burn about a third of its proven oil, gas, and coal reserves to have a good chance of keeping global warming below the 2°C threshold. And according to Ecofys, these 14 projects alone have the potential to burn through 30 percent of those reserves by 2030 — making those climate goals extremely difficult to reach."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/01/22/these-14-fossil-fuel-projects-could-make-worlds-climate-goals-unreachable/

[limpyhobbler]

1. du rec

[Rhiannon12866]

2. K&R! Excellent information!

This should be on every front page in the nation... *sigh*

[NickB79]

3. If I were a betting man

I'd guess almost all of these projects will come online. Maybe not as fast as their planners liked, but within the next decade or so. As a species we've yet to meet a fossil fuel reserve we didn't like.