Trump drilling leases could create more climate pollution than EU does in a year

Source: The Guardian

Trump drilling leases could create more climate pollution than EU does in a year

US has offered close to 378m acres of public lands and waters for oil and gas leasing since Trump took office through April 2019

Emily Holden in Washington
Wed 17 Jul 2019 06.00 BST Last modified on Wed 17 Jul 2019 16.40 BST

Donald Trump’s leases of public lands and waters for oil and gas drilling could lead to the production of more climate-warming pollution than the entire European Union contributes in a year, according to a new report.

The Wilderness Society estimates heat-trapping emissions from extracting and burning those fossil fuels could range between 854m and 4.7bn metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, depending on how much development companies pursue.

The 28 nations in the European Union produced about 4bn metric tons of CO2 equivalent in 2014, the last year reported.

“These leasing decisions have significant and long-term ramifications for our climate and our ability to stave off the worst impacts of global warming,” the group said.

“Emissions from public lands are expected to fall well short of the reductions target suggested by leading climate science, and this administration’s leasing decisions are making that problem much worse.”

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/16/trump-drilling-leases-pollution-eu-climate-change