Research

The Sky’s Limit Africa assesses fossil fuel industry plans to sink USD $230 billion into the development of new extraction projects in Africa in the next decade — and USD $1.4 trillion by 2050. It finds these projects are not compatible with a safe climate future and that they are at risk of becoming stranded assets that leave behind unfunded clean-up, shortfalls of government revenue, and overnight job losses.

The recently released draft five-year plan for offshore oil and gas drilling is predicated on a failure to act on stated climate policy. To remedy this, the U.S. government should act quickly to implement a climate test in order to evaluate energy decisions on the basis of our national and international climate commitments.

Shell is currently moving its drilling rigs to Seattle in anticipation of resuming its US offshore Arctic drilling programme in July. However, it is far from clear that Shell has adequate physical or financial plans to deal with the impacts of a major oil spill in this remote region.