Fossil Fuels

The burning of fossil fuels is the primary driver of the climate crisis, accounting for over 80 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. The extensive scientific modeling of future harms and carbon budgets could not be clearer, yet governments continue to allow – and subsidize – the expansion of fossil-fuel production. Across the globe, fossil-fuel production and use harms the health and livelihoods of people living in marginalized communities located in and around coal, oil, and gas sites. Human Rights Watch stands with fence-line communities around the world to end the direct human harms inherent to fossil-fuel projects and uplift local community demands for stricter regulations, moratoria on new exploration and production, and alternative forms of cleaner energy.