This article discusses a study that shows that the North American drilling boom threatens big blow to climate efforts.
- More than half the world’s new pipelines are in the US and Canada.
- Pipelines ‘locking in huge emissions for 40 to 50 years at a time’.
More than half of the world’s new oil and gas pipelines are located in North America, with a boom in US oil and gas drilling set to deliver a major blow to efforts to slow climate change, a new report has found.
Of a total 302 pipelines in some stage of development around the world, 51% are in North America, according to Global Energy Monitor, which tracks fossil fuel activity. A total of $232.5bn in capital spending has been funneled into these North American pipeline projects, with more than $1tn committed towards all oil and gas infrastructure.
If built, these projects would increase the global number of pipelines by nearly a third and mark out a path of several decades of substantial oil and gas use.
In the US alone, the natural-gas output enabled by the pipelines would result in an additional 559m tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide each year by 2040, above 2017 levels, according to Global Energy Monitor, citing International Energy Agency figures.