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One-fourth of the international residents resides within 5km of operational coal, oil, and gas sites, potentially risking the well-being of exceeding 2bn human beings as well as critical natural habitats, per groundbreaking research.

Worldwide Distribution of Fossil Fuel Operations

More than 18,300 petroleum, gas, and coal locations are now distributed across one hundred seventy nations worldwide, covering a vast area of the world's terrain.

Closeness to wellheads, industrial plants, transport lines, and additional oil and gas installations raises the threat of tumors, breathing ailments, cardiovascular issues, premature birth, and mortality, while also posing severe threats to drinking water and air cleanliness, and damaging soil.

Close Proximity Risks and Planned Growth

Nearly half a billion people, encompassing over 120 million children, currently live less than one kilometer of coal and gas operations, while a further 3,500 or so new sites are now planned or being built that could force one hundred thirty-five million additional individuals to face fumes, gas flares, and leaks.

The majority of functioning sites have created contamination zones, turning adjacent communities and critical habitats into so-called disposable areas – heavily contaminated locations where economically disadvantaged and marginalized groups shoulder the unfair load of contact to pollution.

Physical and Environmental Consequences

This analysis details the severe medical toll from extraction, processing, and shipping, as well as illustrating how seepages, burning, and construction destroy unique ecological systems and undermine individual rights – notably of those living near petroleum, natural gas, and coal facilities.

It comes as global delegates, not including the United States – the greatest past emitter of climate pollutants – meet in Belem, Brazil, for the thirtieth climate negotiations during increasing frustration at the lack of progress in phasing out coal, oil, and gas, which are causing environmental breakdown and human rights violations.

"Oil and gas companies and its state sponsors have argued for a long time that economic growth requires oil, gas, and coal. But research shows that in the name of prosperity, they have instead favored profit and earnings unchecked, breached liberties with almost total impunity, and destroyed the climate, ecosystems, and seas."

Climate Negotiations and International Pressure

The environmental summit takes place as the the Asian nation, the North American country, and the Caribbean island are reeling from superstorms that were strengthened by warmer atmospheric and ocean temperatures, with countries under mounting demand to take decisive steps to regulate fossil fuel companies and end extraction, subsidies, licenses, and use in order to comply with a landmark ruling by the world court.

Last week, reports revealed how over 5,350 coal and petroleum lobbyists have been allowed entry to the international environmental negotiations in the recent years, hindering environmental measures while their employers drill for unprecedented quantities of oil and natural gas.

Analysis Approach and Results

This data-driven study is derived from a first-of-its-kind location-based exercise by experts who analyzed information on the documented positions of fossil fuel operations locations with census figures, and datasets on critical ecosystems, carbon outputs, and native communities' territories.

One-third of all active petroleum, coal, and natural gas sites coincide with multiple key environments such as a wetland, jungle, or river system that is abundant in wildlife and important for carbon sequestration or where ecological decline or calamity could lead to habitat destruction.

The actual global scope is possibly higher due to gaps in the documentation of oil and gas projects and incomplete census records across countries.

Natural Injustice and Native Peoples

The findings reveal entrenched ecological injustice and bias in contact to oil, gas, and coal mining operations.

Native communities, who represent one in twenty of the global residents, are disproportionately subjected to health-reducing coal and gas operations, with 16% facilities positioned on tribal areas.

"We endure multi-generational resistance weariness … We literally will not withstand [this]. We are not the instigators but we have taken the force of all the conflict."

The expansion of fossil fuels has also been linked with territorial takeovers, heritage destruction, social fragmentation, and loss of livelihoods, as well as violence, online threats, and legal actions, both criminal and non-criminal, against local representatives peacefully opposing the development of pipelines, extraction operations, and additional facilities.

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