Wood pellets burnt to generate energy drive deforestation in Southeast Asia, emit more CO2 per unit of energy than fossil fuels and support the Ukraine conflict, environmentalists said in an open letter to Korea's trade ministry.
Last month, Germany became the first major economy to announce that it intends to introduce a target to reach “net-negative” emissions later this century.
Despite growing pressure to decarbonise, the world's largest "carbon majors" have ramped up production since the Paris climate treaty – and nowhere more so than in Asia, an InfluenceMap study finds.
Burning all the oil and gas from new discoveries and newly approved projects since 2021 would emit at least 14.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (GtCO2), according to Carbon Brief analysis of Global Energy Monitor (GEM) data.