Your number is up, fossil fuels
"Our addiction to fossil fuels is pushing humanity to the brink," United Nations secretary-general António Guterres said in opening remarks at the UN climate talks in Glasgow this week. "We face a stark choice: Either we stop it — or it stops us."
"We are digging our own graves," he warned.
As world leaders, countries and citizens converge in Glasgow, renewed focus is needed to tackle the main cause of the climate crisis — the production of coal, oil and gas. Success at COP26 calls for new efforts to phase down fossil fuel production in line with 1.5°C and to enable a globally just and equitable transition that leaves no country behind.
The numbers don’t lie. Fossil fuels are driving the climate crisis, having driven 86% of carbon emissions in the past decade alone. The industry is doing little to change their polluting ways and the vulnerable are becoming moreso with the continued burning of fossil fuels.
Other standout statistics include:
Despite the growth in renewables, “big oil” only spent 1% of its combined budget on green energy schemes in 2018.
More than half of $372bn pandemic recovery funds given by G7 countries to energy-producing and consuming activities from January 2020 until March 2021 was for coal, oil and gas.
Air pollution from burning fossil fuels was responsible for about 1 in 5 deaths worldwide in 2018, the equivalent of 8 million people.
In 1979, an Exxon study said that burning fossil fuels “will cause dramatic environmental effects” in the coming decades. Yet CEOs of ExxonMobil plus Chevron, Shell and BP America are denying this knowledge.
The fossil fuel industry benefits from subsidies of $11m every minute.
Download the full fact sheet below.