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One-fourth of the international population dwells within five kilometers of functioning oil, gas, and coal facilities, possibly risking the physical condition of exceeding two billion people as well as essential ecosystems, per pioneering analysis.

Global Distribution of Fossil Fuel Operations

Over 18,300 petroleum, gas, and coal mining locations are now distributed in 170 nations worldwide, occupying a vast area of the Earth's land.

Closeness to wellheads, processing plants, transport lines, and further fossil fuel operations increases the risk of cancer, breathing ailments, cardiovascular issues, preterm labor, and death, while also causing severe risks to drinking water and air quality, and damaging soil.

Close Proximity Risks and Proposed Growth

Almost over 460 million residents, counting 124 million children, currently reside within 1km of fossil fuel sites, while another three thousand five hundred or so proposed facilities are currently proposed or being built that could force over 130 million further residents to endure emissions, flares, and leaks.

The majority of operational operations have created contamination hotspots, transforming surrounding communities and essential ecosystems into often termed disposable areas – highly polluted locations where economically disadvantaged and vulnerable groups carry the unfair weight of proximity to contaminants.

Medical and Environmental Impacts

The report details the harmful health impact from extraction, treatment, and transportation, as well as showing how spills, flares, and development harm irreplaceable ecological systems and weaken human rights – particularly of those living in proximity to oil, natural gas, and coal infrastructure.

It comes as world leaders, without the US – the biggest historical producer of carbon emissions – assemble in Belém, the South American nation, for the 30th climate negotiations amid increasing disappointment at the slow advancement in eliminating coal, oil, and gas, which are causing global ecological crisis and human rights violations.

"Coal and petroleum corporations and its state sponsors have maintained for many years that economic growth needs oil, gas, and coal. But research shows that masked as financial development, they have in fact promoted profit and profits without red lines, infringed rights with almost total immunity, and harmed the climate, ecosystems, and seas."

Climate Talks and Global Demand

The environmental summit occurs as the Philippines, the North American country, and the Caribbean island are suffering from extreme weather events that were worsened by warmer air and sea temperatures, with states under increasing urgency to take firm steps to oversee oil and gas corporations and end extraction, government funding, permits, and use in order to comply with a landmark ruling by the global judicial body.

Recently, revelations indicated how in excess of 5,350 fossil fuel industry influence peddlers have been granted entry to the United Nations global conferences in the last several years, hindering emission reductions while their paymasters pump historic volumes of oil and natural gas.

Study Approach and Data

This data-driven research is founded on a first-of-its-kind geospatial project by researchers who cross-referenced records on the identified sites of oil and gas facilities locations with population data, and datasets on essential ecosystems, climate releases, and Indigenous peoples' territories.

One-third of all operational oil, coal mining, and natural gas facilities overlap with several key ecosystems such as a wetland, jungle, or river system that is rich in species diversity and vital for CO2 absorption or where natural decline or calamity could lead to environmental breakdown.

The true worldwide scale is possibly higher due to omissions in the reporting of fossil fuel sites and limited population records throughout nations.

Natural Inequity and Indigenous Populations

The data show long-standing environmental inequity and discrimination in exposure to oil, natural gas, and coal industries.

Tribal populations, who comprise five percent of the international population, are unfairly subjected to dangerous oil and gas infrastructure, with 16% locations situated on native areas.

"We're experiencing intergenerational resistance weariness … Our bodies will not withstand [this]. We are not the instigators but we have borne the force of all the violence."

The growth of fossil fuels has also been linked with territorial takeovers, heritage destruction, social fragmentation, and loss of livelihoods, as well as aggression, online threats, and court cases, both criminal and legal, against community leaders calmly resisting the construction of conduits, drilling projects, and other operations.

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