"More than 400 oil and gas projects were approved globally in the last two years despite calls to abandon all new hydrocarbon development, new figures showed as the UN COP28 climate talks opened Thursday.

With greenhouse gas emissions threatening to heat the planet to catastrophic levels, countries at the talks in Dubai are under pressure to agree to phase out oil, gas and coal in order to meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees.

Nearly 200 private and public corporations across 58 countries were involved in the 437 new fossil fuel projects, according to figures from the nonprofit Reclaim Finance, based on data from Rystad Energy consultants.

The data demonstrates the mismatch between the continuing exploitation of fossil fuels—responsible for most of humanity's greenhouse gases—and the target of limiting warming."

Valentin Rakovsky and Nathalie Alonso report for AFP November 30, 2023. [2]