‘Planet wreckers’: 20 countries led by US to emit 90% carbon dioxide through 2050

Subject :Environment

Section: Climate Change

Context:

Just 20 countries in the world, led by the United States, would be responsible for nearly 90 per cent of the carbon dioxide emissions through 2050, found a new analysis by research organization Oil Change International.

Details:

The reason for such a massive share is the new oil and gas extraction and fracking wells planned by these countries between 2023 and 2050.
Five countries in the global north — the United States, Canada, Australia, Norway and the United Kingdom — would contribute the majority(51%) of emissions through 2050.
Top20 countries include: Russia, China, Iran, Brazil, UAE, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, Guyana, Qatar, Argentina, Mexico, Nigeria, India and Kazakhstan.
If these 20 countries heed the call from United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to end new licensing and new extraction, they could help prevent 173 Gt of further CO2 pollution.
The USA alone accounted for more than a third of planned global oil and gas expansion through 2050.
Nearly 60 percent of the fossil fuels in existing fields and mines must stay in the ground to keep global temperature rise to 1.5°C.

What do the other reports say?

Another report by Climate Action Tracker released at the Bonn Climate Change Conference in June 2023 noted that the world’s largest fossil fuel-producing countries have neither committed to end oil and gas production nor set a global target for renewable energy.
the first global stocktake technical synthesis report released by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change warned that the world is “not on track” to meet the long-term goal of limiting global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius.

UN Climate summit:

Held in: New York, USA on 20 Sept 2023.
Goal: The summit would accelerate action by governments, businesses, finance, local authorities and civil society.

Oil Change International:

Oil Change International is a research, communication, and advocacy organization focused on exposing the true costs of fossil fuels and facilitating the coming transition towards clean energy.
Oil Change International contributes to the greater movement in a number of important ways:
- Oil Change brings unique industry expertise that allows us to research and release timely, hard-hitting, campaign-relevant investigations countering corporate arguments for oil, gas and coal development;
- Oil Change engages in domestic and international policy forums to push a shift of public finances away from fossil fuels and towards clean energy;
- Oil Change provides experience and leadership in organizing resistance to the political influence of the fossil fuel industry, particularly in the United States.