Almost 40pc of developed fossil fuel reserves must be left unextracted to keep warming below 1.5°C
Burning developed fossil fuel reserves will exceed 1.5°C carbon budget
Significant proportion of CO₂ from oil, gas and coal assets either producing or under construction must be left unburned, study says
Staying within a 1.5°C global carbon budget will require almost 40pc of developed fossil fuel reserves to be left unextracted, according to a new study published in scientific journal Environmental Research Letters. Developed reserves are defined as oil and gas fields or coal mines that are either actively producing or under construction. While several previous studies have assessed total reserves in relation to carbon budgets, no study has yet focused on the subset of reserves that are already developed—and therefore potentially locked in—by past development decisions. “Developed reserves are particularly relevant to climate policy because they reflect the cumulative quantity of oil, gas a
Also in this section
22 July 2025
Sinopec hosts launch of global sharing platform as Beijing looks to draw on international investors and expertise
22 July 2025
Africa’s most populous nation puts cap-and-trade and voluntary markets at the centre of its emerging strategy to achieve net zero by 2060
17 July 2025
Oil and gas companies will face penalties if they fail to reach the EU’s binding CO₂ injection targets for 2030, but they could also risk building underused and unprofitable CCS infrastructure
9 July 2025
Latin American country plans a cap-and-trade system and supports the scale-up of CCS as it prepares to host COP30
