BERLIN – Since the Paris climate agreement was signed in 2015, too many policymakers have fallen for the oil and gas industry’s rhetoric about how it can help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Tall tales about “clean coal,” “oil pipelines to fund clean energy” and “gas as a bridge fuel” have coaxed governments into rubber-stamping new fossil fuel projects, even though current fossil fuel production already threatens to push temperatures well beyond the Paris agreement’s limit of well below 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
Thirty years after a former Nasa scientist sounded the alarm for the general public about climate change and human activity, the expert issued a fresh warning that the world is failing “miserably” to deal with the worsening dangers.
Europe’s largest bank, HSBC, said on Friday it would mostly stop funding new coal power plants, oil sands and arctic drilling, becoming the latest in a long line of investors to shun the fossil fuels.
Other large banks such as ING and BNP Paribas have made similar pledges in recent months as investors have mounted pressure to make sure bank’s actions align with the Paris agreement, a global pact to limit greenhouse gas emissions and curb rising temperatures.
