Explained: What are ‘carbon bombs’, why environmentalists want them defused?

What is the News?

A group of environmentalists, lawyers and activists have come together to identify and ‘defuse carbon bombs’ that have the potential to contribute significantly to global warming.

What are Carbon Bombs?

It is “an oil or gas project that will result in at least a billion tonnes of CO2 emissions over its lifetime.”

In total, around 195 such projects have been identified the world over, including in the US, Russia, West Asia, Australia and India.

They will collectively overshoot the limit of emissions that had been agreed to in the Paris Agreement of 2015.

What is the plan for defusing Carbon Bombs?

The network working towards this goal is called Leave It In the Ground Initiative (LINGO). 

Its mission is to leave fossil fuels in the ground and learn to live without them. It believes the root of climate change is the burning of fossil fuels and the 100% use of renewable energy sources is the solution.

The network has listed carbon bomb projects from all over the world. This includes the Carmichael Coal Project owned by the Adani Group, Gevra Coal Mines in Chhattisgarh owned by Coal India, and Rajmahal Coal Mines in eastern Jharkhand owned by Eastern Coalfields.

Source: The post is based on the article “Explained: What are ‘carbon bombs’, why environmentalists want them defused?” published in Indian Express on 8th June 2022.