Analysis
Fossil Fuels
Our position
Humanity faces a difficult challenge. To stabilize increasing global temperatures from climate change, the world must eventually phase out fossil fuels; but in the meantime, gas and oil remain key to human development, universal energy access, and climate resilience. In developed economies, natural gas remains a fundamental bridge between coal and clean energy sources like nuclear, geothermal, or renewables. Developing economies need a backbone of flexible generation to support clean energy deployment and fossil inputs for crucial industries like fertilizers, cement, and steel. Barring fossil fuels development in poorer countries consigns their populations to continued poverty and hunger.
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Three pieces the team says to read first
Fossil Fuels work
Research, analysis and everything we have put on the record: comments, testimony, statements, letters and endorsements.
Showing 7–12 of 20
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Analysis
How Fossil Fuels Saved the Whales, Twice
What Ed Conway Gets Right and Wrong About Substitution and Sustainability
· Jonah Messinger, Alex Trembath
Analysis
Clean Energy May be Growing, But It’s Not Replacing Dirty Energy
It’s Not Even Keeping Pace with Growing Consumption
· Matthew L. Wald
Analysis
A Major Paper on Liquified Natural Gas Emissions Is Riddled with Errors
Reviewing Robert Howarth’s Most Recent Work
· Jonah Messinger
Analysis
The Gas Bridge Revisited
Even Leaky Gas is Better Than Coal
· Alex Trembath, Jonah Messinger
Report
Mass Acquisition of Early Site Permits for Coal-to-Nuclear Repowering
Propelling the Transition Towards Cleaner, More Sustainable Energy Sources
· Charlyne Smith, Leigh Anne Lloveras, Adam Stein
7–12 of 20
Who to talk to
Alex Trembath
Executive Director Email
Latest: Quiet Climate Policy Is Dead. Long Live All-of-the-Above Energy Policy.
Vijaya Ramachandran
Director, Energy and Development Email
Latest: Greenwashing With Chinese Characteristics
Questions
When will fossil fuels run out?
Not anytime soon. Coal, oil, and natural gas remain abundant, and new technologies can make additional resources economical to extract. The challenge is not waiting for fossil fuels to run out, but developing cleaner substitutes that can outperform them.
Why are fossil fuels bad for the environment?
Fossil fuels have powered enormous improvements in living standards and remain essential to modern economies. But burning them releases carbon dioxide that drives climate change, as well as pollutants like particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury that harm human health.
Should fossil fuels be banned?
No. Fossil fuels remain essential to modern economies and global development, and abruptly banning them would collapse global agriculture, trade, manufacturing, and electricity production—making a ban functionally impossible.
Do fossil fuels still supply most of the world's energy?
Yes. Fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas—still supply over 80 percent of the world’s total primary energy and around 68% of final energy. That includes energy used for transportation, heating, industry, and electricity generation, not just electricity.