We already have enough extractable fossil fuels to cook the planet.
As world leaders convened at the United Nations to speak of climate futures, a quieter reckoning arrived in the form of data. The Global Registry of Fossil Fuels — built by Carbon Tracker and the Global Energy Monitor — made public for the first time a comprehensive map of more than 50,000 oil, gas, and coal fields across 89 countries, covering three-quarters of the world's remaining extractable carbon. It is a tool born of a simple but unsettling premise: that what cannot be seen cannot be challenged, and that the first act of accountability is making the invisible visible. The registry does not prescribe action, but it forecloses the oldest refuge of inaction — the claim of not knowing.
- The world's remaining fossil fuel reserves have never been fully visible to the public — until now, that information lived behind paywalls or inside government silos, shielding extraction decisions from scrutiny.
- The numbers the registry surfaces are staggering: the US and Russia alone hold untapped reserves capable of generating 3.5 trillion tons of emissions — more than all of human industrial history — enough to shatter the 1.5°C carbon budget many times over.
- Civil society groups, investors, and shareholders now have a field-level tool to challenge government licensing decisions and corporate expansion plans at companies like Shell, Exxon, and Chevron.
- The launch was timed deliberately — arriving as COP27 approaches and climate negotiations intensify, designed to inject supply-side accountability into a conversation long dominated by demand-side pledges.
- The database does not compel action, but it dismantles ignorance as an excuse, placing the full weight of what remains underground squarely in front of those with the power to leave it there.
On the same Monday that world leaders gathered at the United Nations General Assembly to discuss climate action, a new instrument of accountability went live. The Global Registry of Fossil Fuels — built by Carbon Tracker and the Global Energy Monitor — catalogues more than 50,000 oil, gas, and coal fields across 89 countries, covering three-quarters of global reserves, production, and emissions. It is the first time such data has been made freely and publicly accessible.
Until now, detailed supply-side fossil fuel data existed only in private, purchasable datasets or in fragmented public analyses. The International Energy Agency tracks what the world consumes; this registry tracks what remains to be extracted — a crucial and long-missing lens. Carbon Tracker founder Mark Campanale envisions civil society using it to scrutinize government licensing decisions and challenge the permitting processes that continue to green-light new extraction projects.
The data tells a sobering story. The United States and Russia together hold enough untapped reserves to exhaust the entire global carbon budget for 1.5°C of warming — 3.5 trillion tons of potential emissions, exceeding everything humanity has released since the Industrial Revolution. Stanford climate scientist Rob Jackson offered a stark summary: we already have more extractable fossil fuels than the planet can safely absorb. "We can't afford to use them all — or almost any of them at this point."
Campanale extends the argument to capital markets. Investors and shareholders in companies like Shell, Exxon, and Chevron now have the data to challenge corporate expansion plans and push for redirection of capital toward the energy transition. The registry will not resolve the climate crisis on its own — but it removes the refuge of ignorance. Governments, corporations, and investors can no longer claim they did not know what was underground, or what burning it would cost. The question that remains is whether those with the power to act will choose to.
On Monday, as world leaders gathered at the United Nations General Assembly in New York to discuss climate action, a new tool for holding those leaders accountable went live. The Global Registry of Fossil Fuels is a public database cataloging more than 50,000 oil, gas, and coal fields across 89 countries—a comprehensive map of where the world's remaining extractable carbon sits underground, waiting to be burned.
The registry represents something unprecedented: detailed, publicly accessible data on fossil fuel reserves and production covering three-quarters of global supply. Until now, such information existed only in private datasets available for purchase, or in fragmented public analyses focused on energy demand rather than supply. The International Energy Agency maintains public fossil fuel data, but it tracks what the world consumes, not what remains to be extracted. This new database flips that lens, making visible the full scope of untapped reserves that governments continue to license and corporations continue to develop.
Two organizations built the registry: Carbon Tracker, a nonprofit research institute examining how the energy transition reshapes financial markets, and the Global Energy Monitor, which monitors energy infrastructure projects worldwide. Mark Campanale, Carbon Tracker's founder, sees the database as a tool for accountability. He envisions civil society groups using it to scrutinize government licensing decisions for coal, oil, and gas extraction, and to challenge the permitting processes that green-light new projects. The timing is deliberate—the database launches as climate negotiations intensify, with COP27 scheduled for November in Egypt.
The data itself tells a sobering story. According to the registry's analysis, the United States and Russia together hold enough untapped fossil fuel reserves to exhaust the world's remaining carbon budget for limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Those reserves alone would generate 3.5 trillion tons of greenhouse gas emissions—more than all the emissions humanity has produced since the Industrial Revolution began. Rob Jackson, a Stanford climate scientist, put it plainly: we already have enough extractable fossil fuels to warm the planet beyond safe limits. "We can't afford to use them all—or almost any of them at this point," he said. "We've run out of time to build new things in old ways."
Jackson offered a useful metaphor: imagine the global carbon budget as a bathtub filling with water. Governments can slow the flow by cutting emissions, or they can drain the tub by removing carbon from the atmosphere. But the data shows we have far more carbon than we need—enough to overflow the tub and flood the bathroom. Campanale's argument extends beyond governments to investors and shareholders. Those who ultimately own the world's largest oil, gas, and coal companies have the power to challenge corporate expansion plans. Companies like Shell, Exxon, and Chevron could face pressure from their own investors to redirect capital away from new fossil fuel projects and toward the energy transition.
The database won't solve climate change by itself. But it removes a crucial excuse: ignorance. Governments, investors, and corporations can no longer claim they don't know what reserves exist or what their extraction would cost the climate. The information is now public, detailed down to individual fields, and available to anyone with internet access. What happens next depends on whether those with power to act—whether through policy, investment decisions, or shareholder pressure—choose to use it.
Notable Quotes
Civil society groups need to focus on what governments are planning in terms of license issuance and challenge the permitting process.— Mark Campanale, founder of Carbon Tracker
We already have enough extractable fossil fuels to cook the planet. We can't afford to use them all—or almost any of them at this point.— Rob Jackson, Stanford University climate scientist
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does a public database matter when private data already exists? Investors and oil companies already know what's in the ground.
They know, but the rest of us didn't. Civil society groups, journalists, local communities—we were working blind. Now when a government approves a new coal mine or oil field, activists can point to the exact data and say: this project alone will generate X tons of emissions we cannot afford. That's a different kind of leverage.
But Shell and Exxon won't suddenly stop drilling because a database exists. What's the actual mechanism of change here?
It's about shareholders and investors. If you own stock in these companies, you now have concrete data to demand your company explain why it's approving new projects when we've already exceeded our carbon budget. The database gives you ammunition for that conversation.
The U.S. and Russia alone could exhaust the 1.5-degree budget. That's just two countries. How does transparency help when the math is already impossible?
It doesn't make the math less impossible. But it makes the choice visible. Right now, governments can issue licenses and claim they're necessary for energy security or jobs. The database forces a harder question: are we doing this because we have to, or because we've chosen to ignore what we know?
So this is really about moral clarity, not technical solution.
Exactly. The technical solution—stop building new fossil fuel infrastructure—has been clear for years. This database just makes it harder to pretend otherwise.