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Leave some in the ground: underground national parks for fossil fuel reserves

Submitted on Sunday 4th September 2011

Published on Monday 5th September 2011

Current status: Closed

Closed: Wednesday 5th September 2012

Signatures: 4

Tagged with

UK

Petition Action

Leave some in the ground: underground national parks for fossil fuel reserves

Additional Information

Researchers at the Potsdam Institute in Germany estimate that, to keep the chances of exceeding two degrees to 20% or less, between 2000 and 2050 the world can afford to release no more than 886 billion tonnes of CO2. As we have released 321 billion tonnes since, that leaves only 565 billion for the next 40 years.

But current reserves contain roughly twice as much carbon as we can afford to burn in the millennium.

Carbon capture from fossil fuel burning has not been deployed commercially and probably never will be. The world must therefore leave half those fossil fuels where they can do no harm - in the ground.

The UK should begin by identifying those 25% of reserves on UK territory that are least accessible, highest in carbon, and where extraction would be most damaging to ecosystems above. These should be designated national parks, protected from exploitation, at least until such time as carbon capture is economically competitive.


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