According to a new report by the World Resources Institute, global coal production may exceed a key threshold in 2020, and oil and gas production could break through the limit two years later, ending a pledge from world leaders to keep temperature rises to a minimum. The report is based on data sourced from international organisations, government agencies, and energy companies which suggests that for the first time in the Paris Agreement, countries are on course to break through a key fossil fuel production level set out by the International Energy Agency in 2018. The IEA calculated that the maximum volume of carbon-emitting energy that can be produced without breaching the Paris Agreement is around 1,200 gigatons of oil equivalent. The current production level is estimated to be over 1,300 gigatons, and the new analysis suggests this could rise to 1,400 by 2030. This means that global emissions must come down rapidly for the world to remain within the key temperature goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the report says.
