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