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25% of the world's people dwells within 5km of functioning coal, oil, and gas sites, likely threatening the well-being of exceeding two billion individuals as well as critical natural habitats, according to groundbreaking research.

Global Spread of Fossil Fuel Infrastructure

More than eighteen thousand three hundred oil, natural gas, and coal facilities are presently located in 170 states worldwide, occupying a large expanse of the world's terrain.

Proximity to extraction sites, processing plants, conduits, and additional oil and gas operations elevates the danger of tumors, breathing ailments, cardiac problems, early delivery, and fatality, while also creating severe dangers to water supplies and air quality, and harming soil.

Close Proximity Dangers and Planned Development

Nearly over 460 million individuals, encompassing over 120 million youth, presently dwell within 0.6 miles of coal and gas sites, while an additional 3.5k or so new facilities are currently proposed or in progress that could require over 130 million additional people to experience emissions, flares, and accidents.

The majority of operational projects have created toxic zones, turning adjacent populations and vital habitats into so-called disposable areas – highly contaminated zones where poor and vulnerable groups bear the unequal load of exposure to toxins.

Physical and Natural Effects

The study describes the harmful physical consequences from mining, processing, and transportation, as well as illustrating how seepages, burning, and building harm priceless ecological systems and undermine individual rights – notably of those dwelling in proximity to petroleum, gas, and coal infrastructure.

It comes as global delegates, without the United States – the greatest historical source of carbon emissions – assemble in Belém, Brazil, for the thirtieth climate negotiations amid growing concern at the lack of progress in eliminating fossil fuels, which are leading to planetary collapse and rights abuses.

"The fossil fuel industry and its government backers have argued for a long time that societal progress requires fossil fuels. But research shows that in the name of prosperity, they have instead favored profit and profits without limits, infringed rights with almost total immunity, and destroyed the atmosphere, ecosystems, and oceans."

Global Negotiations and Worldwide Pressure

Cop30 takes place as the the Asian nation, the North American country, and Jamaica are reeling from superstorms that were worsened by increased air and sea temperatures, with nations under growing demand to take decisive action to control coal and gas firms and stop extraction, subsidies, permits, and demand in order to follow a significant judgment by the global judicial body.

Recently, disclosures showed how more than over 5.3k oil and gas sector lobbyists have been given entry to the UN environmental negotiations in the past four years, hindering environmental measures while their employers drill for record volumes of petroleum and gas.

Research Process and Findings

This data-driven study is derived from a first-of-its-kind geospatial project by experts who compared records on the identified locations of coal and gas infrastructure sites with census figures, and datasets on critical ecosystems, carbon releases, and tribal territories.

33% of all active oil, coal mining, and gas sites coincide with one or more essential environments such as a wetland, forest, or aquatic network that is teeming with biodiversity and vital for CO2 absorption or where ecological decline or catastrophe could lead to habitat destruction.

The actual worldwide extent is probably greater due to omissions in the documentation of coal and gas sites and incomplete demographic records across nations.

Ecological Inequality and Native Communities

The findings show deep-seated environmental injustice and bias in proximity to oil, natural gas, and coal industries.

Indigenous peoples, who represent 5% of the world's people, are unfairly exposed to health-reducing oil and gas operations, with 16% locations positioned on Indigenous territories.

"We endure intergenerational resistance weariness … Our bodies will not withstand [this]. We were never the instigators but we have taken the impact of all the conflict."

The spread of coal, oil, and gas has also been associated with territorial takeovers, traditional loss, social fragmentation, and economic hardship, as well as aggression, digital harassment, and legal actions, both criminal and non-criminal, against local representatives calmly opposing the development of conduits, mining sites, and other facilities.

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