The Carbon Tracker Initiative, out of the UK, has a new report out warning that too much investment in fossil fuel reserves risks bringing on a new global economic crisis.
The report, Unburnable Carbon 2013: Wasted capital and stranded assets, says that at least two-thirds of oil, gas and coal reserves of publicly-listed companies are ‘unburnable’ if the world is to have a chance of not exceeding global warming of 2°C. This means that the world could be heading for a major economic crisis as stock markets inflate an investment bubble in fossil fuels – a carbon bubble – to the tune of trillions of dollars, according to Carbon Tracker and Lord Nicholas Stern, a professor at the London School of Economics.
A Guardian article quotes Stern as saying : “The financial crisis has shown what happens when risks accumulate unnoticed.”
The Guardian also ran a short video and global interactive map of fossil fuel reserves vs investment, to illustrate the carbon bubble. Access that tool by clicking here.
