Kühne, K, Bartsch, N, Tate, RD et al. (2 more authors) (2022) “Carbon Bombs” - Mapping key fossil fuel projects. Energy Policy, 166. 112950. p. 112950. ISSN 0301-4215
Abstract
Meeting the Paris targets requires reducing both fossil fuel demand and supply, and closing the “production gap” between climate targets and energy policy. But there is no supply-side mitigation roadmap yet. We need criteria to decide where to focus efforts.
Here, we identify the 425 biggest fossil fuel extraction projects globally (defined as >1 gigaton potential CO2 emissions). We list these “carbon bombs” by name, show in which countries they are located and calculate their potential emissions which combined exceed the global 1.5 °C carbon budget by a factor of two. Already producing carbon bombs account for a significant percentage of global fossil fuel extraction. But 40% of carbon bombs have not yet started extraction.
Climate change mitigation efforts cannot ignore carbon bombs. Defusing them could become an important dimension of climate change mitigation policy and activism towards meeting the Paris targets. So far, few actors, mainly from civil society, are working on defusing carbon bombs, but they are focussing on a very limited number of them. We outline a priority agenda where the key strategies are avoiding the activation of new carbon bombs and putting existing ones into “harvest mode”.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | Supply side mitigation; Carbon bombs; Carbon budget; Harvest mode; Fossil fuels; Climate change |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 18 Jul 2022 09:33 |
Last Modified: | 18 Jul 2022 09:33 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.enpol.2022.112950 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:189177 |