Revealed: “Carbon bombs' set to trigger a climate catastrophe

Oil and gas majors are planning massive projects that threaten to exacerbate the climate crisis. If governments do not act, these firms will continue to cash in as the world burns

- Damian Carrington and Matthew Taylor

the world's biggest fossil fuel firms are quietly planning scores of carbon bomb oil and gas projects that would drive the climate past internationally agreed temperature limits with catastrophic global impacts, a Guardian investigation shows.

The exclusive data reveals these companies are in effect placing multibillion-dollar bets against humanity halting global heating: their huge investments in new fossil fuel production can pay off only if countries fail to rapidly slash carbon emissions, which scientists say is vital.

The oil and gas industry may be extremely volatile but it is also extraordinarily profitable, particularly when prices are high, as they are at present.

ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and Chevron have made almost $2tn in profits in the past three decades, while recent price rises led BP's boss, Bernard Looney, to describe the company as a cash machine”.

The lure of colossal payouts in the years to come appears to be irresistible to the major oil companies, despite the world's climate scientists stating in February that further delay in cutting fossil fuel use would mean missing our last chance to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all”.

As the UN secretary general, António Guterres, warned world leaders in April: “Our addiction to fossil fuels is killing us.”

At the Cop26 climate summit in November, after a quarter-century of annual negotiations that as yet have failed to deliver a fall in global emissions, countries around the world finally included the word coal” in their concluding decision.

Even this belated mention of the dirtiest fossil fuel was fraught, leaving a deeply sorry” Cop president, Alok Sharma, fighting back tears on the podium after India announced a last-minute softening of the language used, from the need to phase out coal” to phase down coal”.