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Global Registry of Fossils: New First Tracker

A first-of-its-kind database to track fossil fuel production, reserves and emissions around the world launched on Monday, coinciding with climate talks taking place at the United Nations General Assembly. in New York.

The global fossil fuel registry includes data from more than 50,000 oil, gas and coal fields in 89 countries. It covers 75% of global reserves, production and emissions, and is available for public use, a first for a collection of this scale.

To date, personal data is available for purchasing and analyzing the world’s fossil fuel use and storage. The International Energy Agency also maintains public data on oil, gas and coal, but it focuses on demand for those fossil fuels, while this new database looks at what has not been burned.

The registry was developed by Carbon Tracker, a nonprofit that studies the impact of the energy transition on financial markets, and the Global Energy Monitor, an organization that tracks many energy projects around the world. Global.

Corporations, investors, and scientists already have some degree of access to personal data about fossil fuels. Mark Campanale, founder of Carbon Tracker, said he hopes the registry will empower groups to hold governments accountable, for example, when they issue permits to mine fossil fuels.

“Civil society groups have to focus more on what governments are planning to do in regards to licensing, for both coal and oil and gas, and really start challenging the licensing process.” this,” Campanale told the Associated Press.

The release of the database and analysis accompanying the data collected coincides with two important climate negotiations at the international level – the UN General Assembly in New York which begins September 13 and COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, in November. . Data like what’s being published in the registry could assist climate and environment groups to pressure national leaders to agree to stronger policies that lead to less carbon emissions. than.

And we are in dire need of carbon cuts, Campanale said.

In their data analysis, the developers found that the United States and Russia have enough fossil fuels that remain untapped underground to deplete the world’s remaining carbon budget. That’s the amount of remaining carbon the world can afford to release before a certain amount of warming occurs, 1.5 degrees Celsius in this case. It also shows that these stocks would generate 3 5.5 trillion tons of greenhouse gas emissions, more than all emissions generated since the Industrial Revolution.

“We already have enough extractable fossil fuels to cook the planet. We can’t use all – or almost any of them at this point. We’re running out of time. to build new things the old way,” said Rob Jackson, a Stanford University climate scientist who was not involved with the database.

“I like the emphasis on transparency in fossil fuel production and storage, down to specific projects. That’s a unique aspect of the job.”

Jackson compares the global carbon budget to a bathtub.

“You can only flush for so long before the tub overflows,” he said. When bathtubs are close to overflowing, he said, governments can turn down the faucets (reducing greenhouse gas emissions) or open up the tub’s drains (removing carbon from the atmosphere).

The database shows that we have more carbon than we need as a global community, Campanale says, and more than enough to overflow bathtubs and flood bathrooms in a similar way to Jackson’s. So investors and shareholders should take the decision-making power at the world’s largest oil, gas and coal companies as they approve new investments in fossil fuel extraction, he said.

The hope, says Campanale, is that the investment community, “the people who ultimately own these corporations,” will use the data to start challenging the investment plans of companies that are still planning to expand their businesses. petroleum and coal projects.

“Companies like Shell and Exxon, Chevron and their shareholders can use analytics to really start to try and push companies in a completely different direction.”


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The Associated Press Health and Science Division receives support from the Howard Hughes Health Institute’s Science Education Department. AP is solely responsible for all content

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