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One-fourth of the global residents dwells less than three miles of operational coal, oil, and gas projects, likely threatening the physical condition of more than 2 billion individuals as well as essential environmental systems, based on groundbreaking research.

International Distribution of Fossil Fuel Sites

Over eighteen thousand three hundred oil, gas, and coal mining facilities are now located in over 170 countries worldwide, occupying a large expanse of the Earth's land.

Proximity to wellheads, industrial plants, transport lines, and additional coal and gas facilities increases the threat of tumors, respiratory conditions, cardiovascular issues, preterm labor, and death, while also creating grave threats to water sources and air cleanliness, and damaging soil.

Immediate Vicinity Dangers and Future Growth

Approximately half a billion individuals, including one hundred twenty-four million youth, presently live less than 1km of coal and gas sites, while another 3,500 or so new sites are currently planned or under development that could compel 135 million more people to experience emissions, gas flares, and accidents.

Most operational sites have created toxic hotspots, transforming adjacent populations and critical environments into often termed sacrifice zones – highly polluted locations where poor and vulnerable groups carry the disproportionate burden of exposure to contaminants.

Health and Ecological Consequences

The report outlines the devastating physical toll from mining, refining, and movement, as well as demonstrating how leaks, flares, and construction destroy unique ecological systems and undermine human rights – especially of those residing in proximity to petroleum, natural gas, and coal mining facilities.

The report emerges as world leaders, without the United States – the largest past source of greenhouse gases – meet in Belem, Brazil, for the 30th annual climate negotiations amid increasing disappointment at the lack of progress in ending fossil fuels, which are causing planetary collapse and civil liberties infringements.

"The fossil fuel industry and their government backers have maintained for a long time that economic growth depends on coal, oil, and gas. But it is clear that under the guise of prosperity, they have rather promoted greed and earnings unchecked, violated liberties with widespread exemption, and harmed the climate, natural world, and oceans."

Climate Talks and International Urgency

Cop30 occurs as the the Asian nation, Mexico, and the Caribbean island are suffering from superstorms that were strengthened by increased atmospheric and sea heat levels, with states under increasing urgency to take decisive steps to control fossil fuel firms and stop drilling, government funding, authorizations, and consumption in order to comply with a significant ruling by the international court of justice.

Recently, disclosures revealed how over five thousand three hundred fifty oil and gas sector lobbyists have been granted entry to the United Nations climate talks in the last several years, hindering climate action while their employers pump historic volumes of petroleum and gas.

Study Methodology and Data

The quantitative analysis is derived from a first-of-its-kind location-based effort by researchers who analyzed information on the documented sites of fossil fuel operations sites with demographic information, and collections on critical habitats, carbon releases, and native communities' land.

A third of all functioning petroleum, coal, and natural gas sites overlap with multiple critical environments such as a swamp, woodland, or aquatic network that is abundant in biodiversity and important for emission storage or where environmental decline or calamity could lead to ecosystem collapse.

The actual global extent is likely greater due to gaps in the documentation of fossil fuel projects and restricted population data in states.

Ecological Inequality and Tribal Communities

The results reveal long-standing environmental injustice and racism in exposure to oil, gas, and coal sectors.

Indigenous peoples, who comprise five percent of the global people, are unfairly vulnerable to health-reducing fossil fuel facilities, with one in six sites positioned on native territories.

"We face intergenerational resistance weariness … We physically won't survive [this]. We have never been the starters but we have taken the impact of all the violence."

The spread of oil, gas, and coal has also been associated with territorial takeovers, cultural pillage, population conflict, and loss of livelihoods, as well as force, online threats, and court cases, both penal and non-criminal, against community leaders non-violently resisting the development of transport lines, drilling projects, and additional infrastructure.

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