COP28: Winning or Losing the NetZero Battle?
At Cop28 in Dubai this month, nations will attempt to agree to cut fossil fuel use and triple renewable energy. The summit comes at the end of a year in which global temperatures have soared, intense impacts of extreme weather have wrecked lives and there have been repeated warnings that the world already has plans to exploit far more fossil fuel reserves than can safely be burned. The data is from the Global Oil and Gas Exit List (Gogel), a public database detailing the activities of more than 1,600 companies representing 95% of global production. The data shows that almost all companies are ignoring warnings from climate scientists that new oil and gas fields cannot be developed if global temperature rise is to be kept to the internationally agreed 1.5C limit. It also shows that: $170bn has been spent by the industry on exploration for new oil and gas reserves since 2021. 96% of the 700 companies that explore or develop new oil and gas fields are continuing to do so.