![58 per cent of oil must stay in the ground to meet 1.5°C climate goal](https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/08123040/PRI_198391706.jpg)
If we want to limit global warming, only 58% of oil can be extracted. HHakim/Getty images
Researchers have determined that energy companies and nations must keep nine-tenths Earth's coal and nearly two-thirds world's oil and gas in the ground to maintain temperatures below 1.5C. This is a goal beyond which climate change impacts can be dangerously amplified.
The analysis of which fossil fuel resources are actually unextractable to meet the Paris Agreement temperature pledge made the situation look even more dire.