Last week, at the largest annual U.S. gathering of climate scientists, I presented OCI’s research showing why meeting global climate goals requires stopping the expansion of oil, gas, and coal extraction.1 Here’s a disturbing truth: At this massive scientific meeting, I was part of the only panel devoted to the urgent need to wind down fossil fuel production.

This lack of focus on fossil fuels is a form of denialism. We can’t solve humanity’s largest crisis without tackling its primary cause and the biggest barrier to solutions: the fossil fuel industry.

This is the role of OCI’s research. We don’t tinker at the edges of the climate crisis. We focus on building the data-driven case and the political will required to draw down the fossil fuel industry in a way that is fast enough for the climate and fair for workers and communities. Because that’s the only path out of this mess.

In 2018, our small research team put out 15 new reports and briefing papers, ranging from a deep dive exposing how the world’s foremost energy agency is steering governments and investors towards climate disaster to a 40-page roadmap showing how California can lead the world in phasing out oil extraction.

Here are a few examples of how our research is helping take the fight to the fossil fuel industry:2

  • Our Sky’s Limit California report was used by a coalition of environmental justice and climate groups to demand that Gov. Jerry Brown and other California officials show real climate leadership by charting a just path off oil extraction. The report revealed that Brown’s administration had approved over 20,000 permits to drill new oil and gas wells.
  • In Ireland, OCI Research Director Greg Muttitt presented evidence to an Irish parliamentary committee to help make the case for a “climate emergency” bill that would ban new oil and gas exploration. Greg’s testimony drew upon OCI’s research debunking the fossil fuel industry narrative that fossil gas can be a ‘transition fuel.’
  • In Oregon, we worked with allies to release a briefing cataloging the climate pollution that would be triggered by the proposed Jordan Cove gas export terminal. Local campaigners are using our research to pressure Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to stop the project.
  • As G20 energy ministers met in Argentina, we worked with allies on the ground to highlight the climate harm of exploiting the Vaca Muerta shale, which is undermining Argentina’s renewable energy transition and Indigenous communities’ rights.

We’ve got a powerful lineup of new analysis in the works for 2019. In January, we’ll be releasing a major report detailing how the current spree of U.S. oil and gas drilling is wildly out of line with climate limits. We’ll be working with allies to use this report to push for real climate leadership at all levels, including building the case for a Green New Deal.

Your support makes it possible for our team to do this – to dig into data and use it strategically to speak truth to power. You can help us keep building the case for real climate solutions in 2019!

Your year-end donation today will strengthen our data-driven, people-powered impact in 2019.

Notes:

[1] I presented results from our groundbreaking 2016 report, The Sky’s Limit, as part of this panel at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting in Washington, DC.

[2] Learn more about the research referenced in this email: