To Avoid Extreme Disasters, Most Fossil Fuels Should Stay Underground, Scientists Say

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Workers clean a gas station damaged by the remnants of Hurricane Ida in New York City. Scientists warn that 60% of world oil reserves need to stay underground to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

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3 Things To Know About What Scientists Say About Our Future Climate

In the U.S., coal power is already on the decline, because both natural gas and renewable energy have become significantly cheaper. The Biden Administration just released a roadmap showing how solar energy could potentially power 40% of the nation’s electricity grid by 2035.

While some European energy companies are increasing their investments in renewable energy, U.S. companies are sticking with fossil fuels in the hope that carbon capture technology, which traps emissions from burning coal or natural gas, will develop to a point where it becomes economical.

Democrats in Congress are currently working to include a «clean electricity standard in a multi-trillion dollar budget package, which could zero-out greenhouse gas emissions from power plants by 2035. With a slim political majority on Capitol HIll, Democrats face an uphill battle in passing the proposal, which is one of the core tenets of the Biden Administration’s climate policy.

Globally, the Biden Administration will join world leaders in November for the next round of climate negotiations at the COP26 conference, where scientists say nations will need to commit to much steeper reductions in emissions for any hope of avoiding more catastrophic disasters in the future.