To meet internationally agreed climate goals there can be no new expansion of fossil fuel supply and existing production must be phased out. Yet countries and companies are still actively expanding production, pressing into previously unexploited frontiers with billions of dollars in infrastructure investments. In fact, countries plan to produce more than double the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 than would be consistent with a 1.5°C temperature limit. The extraction and use of fossil fuels not only drives global warming, but is also contributing to the extinction crisis and local to regional impacts as it fragments and destroys tropical forests and other habitats, degrades water resources, pollutes air, soil, and groundwater, encroaches on protected areas, and harms local people, including Indigenous communities.

Researchers from the Stockholm Environment Institute have now compiled an extensive collection of data into Geographic Information System (GIS) maps for rapid threat identification of fossil fuel expansion projects. This approach serves as an early warning system to shed light on the many converging threats and provide tools for governments, stakeholders and community members engaging with decision making on proposed fossil fuel projects. The proliferation of extraction frontiers into more ecologically rich regions will expand the impacts of fossil fuel exploitation to more communities, ecosystems, and threatened species, as well as push internationally agreed climate targets definitively out of reach.

A two-hour session hosted by Stockholm Environment Institute for Climate Week featuring:

• Sivan Kartha, PhD, Program Research Director, Stockholm Environment Institute

• Liliana Jauregui, Senior Expert Environmental Justice, IUCN (Invited)

• Ryan Brightwell, Researcher, Editor, Human Rights Campaign Coordinator, BankTrack

• Diana Nabimura, Africa Institute for Energy Governance

• Omar Elmawi, Campaign Coordinator, StopEACOP

• Ploy Pattanun Achakulwisut, PhD, Scientist, SEI, Author of Fossil Fuel Trends and Production Gap reports, Can provide context on how much and where fossil fuel expansion is planned

• Bart Wickel, PhD, Senior Scientist, SEI, Can provide details on data and GIS mapping

• Matthew Stilwell, Attorney, Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development, Can provide context on current international negotiations on biodiversity and climate change