🔗 Share this article

One-fourth of the world's residents resides within 5km of active fossil fuel facilities, possibly risking the health of more than 2bn human beings as well as essential environmental systems, according to groundbreaking study.

International Spread of Oil and Gas Sites

More than eighteen thousand three hundred oil, gas, and coal facilities are now located in over 170 states globally, occupying a extensive area of the planet's surface.

Nearness to drilling wells, processing plants, transport lines, and further coal and gas installations elevates the threat of cancer, breathing ailments, cardiovascular issues, early delivery, and fatality, while also posing serious risks to drinking water and atmospheric purity, and degrading land.

Immediate Vicinity Dangers and Future Growth

Approximately half a billion people, counting over 120 million children, currently live within 1km of oil and gas locations, while another 3,500 or so proposed facilities are currently proposed or being built that could compel one hundred thirty-five million more individuals to face emissions, burning, and leaks.

Most operational sites have established pollution zones, transforming adjacent populations and vital habitats into so-called expendable regions – highly polluted locations where low-income and disadvantaged populations bear the unequal burden of proximity to contaminants.

Medical and Natural Consequences

This analysis details the devastating physical consequences from extraction, treatment, and movement, as well as illustrating how leaks, burning, and development harm unique natural ecosystems and undermine individual rights – notably of those dwelling close to oil, gas, and coal mining facilities.

It comes as international representatives, excluding the USA – the biggest long-term source of climate pollutants – gather in Belém, the South American nation, for the 30th climate negotiations during growing disappointment at the limited movement in eliminating fossil fuels, which are causing environmental breakdown and human rights violations.

"The fossil fuel industry and its public supporters have argued for many years that economic growth needs fossil fuels. But research shows that in the name of economic growth, they have rather promoted profit and earnings without limits, breached rights with near-complete exemption, and harmed the atmosphere, ecosystems, and seas."

Climate Negotiations and Global Urgency

The climate conference is held as the the Asian nation, Mexico, and Jamaica are reeling from extreme weather events that were intensified by warmer atmospheric and ocean temperatures, with states under growing demand to take strong steps to regulate fossil fuel corporations and halt mining, subsidies, permits, and consumption in order to comply with a landmark ruling by the global judicial body.

Last week, reports showed how more than five thousand three hundred fifty coal and petroleum influence peddlers have been allowed admission to the United Nations global conferences in the last several years, blocking emission reductions while their paymasters drill for unprecedented volumes of oil and natural gas.

Analysis Approach and Findings

The quantitative research is based on a innovative mapping exercise by researchers who compared information on the documented sites of oil and gas infrastructure sites with population information, and records on essential habitats, carbon releases, and Indigenous peoples' territories.

A third of all active oil, coal mining, and natural gas facilities overlap with multiple key ecosystems such as a wetland, woodland, or aquatic network that is abundant in wildlife and critical for carbon sequestration or where ecological decline or catastrophe could lead to ecosystem collapse.

The actual international scope is possibly higher due to omissions in the reporting of fossil fuel projects and restricted population records in countries.

Ecological Inequity and Indigenous Communities

The findings show entrenched environmental unfairness and discrimination in proximity to oil, gas, and coal mining sectors.

Tribal populations, who comprise one in twenty of the global residents, are disproportionately exposed to dangerous coal and gas infrastructure, with one in six sites positioned on native lands.

"We're experiencing multi-generational struggle exhaustion … Our bodies cannot endure [this]. We have never been the starters but we have endured the brunt of all the conflict."

The growth of fossil fuels has also been connected with land grabs, traditional loss, population conflict, and economic hardship, as well as force, internet intimidation, and lawsuits, both illegal and civil, against local representatives non-violently resisting the development of transport lines, mining sites, and other facilities.

"We never pursue profit; we simply need {what