Research

Oil Change International publishes upwards of 20 reports and briefings every year focused on supporting the movement for a just phase-out of fossil fuels.

Fossil Finance Violations: Tracking Fossil Fuel Projects that violate commitments to end international public finance for fossil fuels

*Updated June 2024* Oil Change International analysis shows that several major countries continue to pump $6.2 billion in public finance into international fossil fuel projects despite committing to end this support by the end of 2022.

Sky’s Limit Data Update: Shut Down 60% of Existing Fossil Fuel Extraction to Keep 1.5°C in Reach

This new analysis, an update to the data in our landmark Sky's Limit series, finds that the majority of the fossil fuel reserves within active fields and mines must now stay in the ground. Using updated 2023 data, the proportion of coal, oil, and gas reserves that must remain unextracted to meet the 1.5°C limit has increased from nearly 40% in 2018 to almost 60% in 2023.

Ceres principles risk eradicating progress on net-zero norms

US non-profit Ceres has produced a paper aimed at explaining actions that oil and gas exploration and production companies (E&Ps) can take to reduce their emissions. It is also supposed to provide useful information on climate alignment to the sector’s investors and bankers. The paper suffers from a number of alarming weaknesses which threaten to reverse progress on setting standards for net-zero finance. Consequently, Reclaim Finance, Oil Change International, urgewald, CIEL, and Stand.Earth have jointly published this analysis in response.

Big Oil Reality Check 2023 — An Assessment of TotalEnergies, Eni, and Equinor’s Climate Plans

These briefings reveal that Total, Eni, and Equinor are on the cusp of approving a surge of new oil and gas development. If they proceed with all the projects in their anticipated pipeline for 2023, Eni could rank as the world’s third worst oil and gas expander this year and Equinor as the world’s eighth worst by the total volume of new reserves approved for extraction.

Changing the Trade Winds: Aligning OECD Export Finance for energy with climate goals

Research shows that Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries supported fossil fuel exports by an average of USD 41 billion from 2018-2020, almost five times more than clean energy exports ($8.5 billion).

Unburnable Carbon in Protected Areas

This new analysis shows that over 47 Gigatonnes of CO2 could be released by extracting and burning fossil fuels from within protected areas.

Certified Disaster: How Project Canary and Gas Certification Are Misleading Gas Markets and Governments

A new report by Oil Change International and Earthworks examines the rapid growth in  “certified gas” and exposes on-the-ground failures to detect oil & gas pollution by one of the largest certifiers of methane gas.

Banking on Climate Chaos 2023: Fossil Fuel Finance Report

This report, Banking on Climate Chaos 2023, analyzes fossil fuel financing and policies from the world’s 60 largest commercial and investment banks. We reveal that fossil fuel financing from the world’s 60 largest banks has reached nearly USD $5.5 trillion in the seven years since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, with $673 billion in 2022 alone.

Briefing: G7 countries can shift billions into clean energy if they strengthen their commitment to end international fossil finance

The new briefing provides preliminary energy finance data for 2022 and shows that not only investments in new fossil fuel infrastructure are incompatible with meeting climate goals, but also that they are not needed for energy security and development goals.

Briefing: Japan’s Toxic Energy Strategy for Asia

This briefing explains how Japan’s “Green Transformation (GX)” policy is a greenwashing exercise designed to benefit corporate interests and prolong the use of fossil fuels when renewable energy solutions are reliable, available, cleaner, and cheaper.