In the Face of COVID-19, Governments Have a Choice: Resilient Societies or Fossil Fuel Bailouts?

(Oil Change International, Washington, 22 April 2020) This briefing outlines why continuing to rely on fossil fuels, in particular oil and gas, is not compatible with long-term recovery. Governments now face a choice: fund a just transition away from fossil fuels that protects workers, communities, and the climate — or continue funding business-as-usual toward climate disaster. Even before the COVID-19 crisis, the fossil fuel industry was already showing signs of permanent decline and it has fostered growing inequalities in and between countries, and has destabilized the climate in a matter of decades. We know that there is enough embedded carbon in already operating oil, gas, and coal production to take us beyond 1.5ºC or even 2ºC, an increase in temperature which affects ecosystems and communities around the world, things we depend upon and value — water, energy, transportation, wildlife, agriculture, ecosystems, and human health, i.e. extreme weather disasters, food production, air quality, rising oceans, etc.