The 14 Fossil-Fuel Projects Poised to F*ck up the Climate

[Hissyspit]

http://grist.org/climate-energy/the-14-fossil-fuel-projects-poised-to-fck-up-the-climate

The 14 fossil-fuel projects poised to f*ck up the climate

by David Roberts | 22 Jan 2013 12:24 PM | 10 comments

In a justly famous Rolling Stone piece, Bill McKibben popularized the notion of “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math.” We have a “carbon budget,” between now and 2050, of roughly 565 gigatons of carbon dioxide. If we emit more than that we are likely to exceed the 2 degree C target agreed to in the Copenhagen Accord. (As Thomas Lovejoy notes in clear-eyed and essential piece in The New York Times yesterday, “2 degrees seems nightmarish as it is.”)

According to the Carbon Tracker Initiative, the amount of CO2 represented by the world’s proven fossil fuel reserves is 2,795 gigatons. Here’s the problem, in math terms:

2,795 > 565

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That is indeed terrifying math, but it may become slightly less so as it becomes more specific and concrete. (It is always helpful to break a large task into component parts.) Toward that end, today saw some fascinating new work from the research consultancy Ecofys. Commissioned by Greenpeace, it attempts to rank the most dangerous fossil-fuel projects currently being planned.

The metric is simple: how many additional tons of CO2 the project will emit by 2020. (See the report for more on methodology.) Here’s how they rank:

China’s Western provinces / Coal mining expansion / 1,400
Australia / Coal export expansion / 760
Arctic / Drilling for oil and gas / 520
Indonesia / Coal export expansion / 460
United States / Coal export expansion / 420
Canada / Tar sands oil / 420
Iraq / Oil drilling / 420
Gulf of Mexico / Deepwater oil drilling / 350
Brazil / Deepwater oil drilling (pre-salt) / 330
Kazakhstan / Oil drilling / 290
United States / Shale gas / 280
Africa / Gas drilling / 260
Caspian Sea / Gas drilling / 240
Venezuela / Tar sands oil / 190
There’s a lot to mull over in this list. Here are a few things that jump out:

• Collectively, these projects would raise global CO2 emissions by 20 percent over and above what current projects are emitting. Another way of putting this is, they would eat up somewhere between 20 and 33 percent of our total carbon budget out to 2050. Just these new projects. By 2020. Yikes.

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• Coal is the problem. Four of the top six polluters are projects bringing new coal out of the ground.

MORE[p]

[Hugabear]

1. We need to ban the use of fossil fuels

We need to set a deadline, after which the use of fossil fuels would be banned. Between now and the deadline, we would need to drastically reduce our usage.

It won't be easy, but we need to do this.