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25% of the global residents lives inside three miles of operational coal, oil, and gas sites, potentially risking the physical condition of exceeding 2bn human beings as well as vital ecosystems, based on pioneering research.

International Presence of Coal and Gas Sites

More than eighteen thousand three hundred oil, gas, and coal mining sites are presently located across one hundred seventy states globally, covering a vast expanse of the Earth's terrain.

Nearness to wellheads, industrial plants, conduits, and further oil and gas facilities raises the threat of cancer, lung diseases, heart disease, early delivery, and death, while also causing grave dangers to drinking water and atmospheric purity, and degrading terrain.

Close Proximity Risks and Planned Development

Approximately 463 million people, encompassing one hundred twenty-four million minors, currently dwell less than 0.6 miles of coal and gas locations, while a further three thousand five hundred or so upcoming sites are now planned or under development that could compel 135 million more individuals to experience emissions, burning, and spills.

Most operational operations have established toxic zones, converting nearby neighborhoods and vital habitats into often termed disposable areas – heavily toxic locations where economically disadvantaged and marginalized populations bear the disproportionate load of proximity to pollution.

Medical and Natural Impacts

The study outlines the severe physical consequences from mining, treatment, and transportation, as well as showing how seepages, burning, and building destroy priceless environmental habitats and compromise individual rights – notably of those residing near oil, natural gas, and coal infrastructure.

It comes as international representatives, without the United States – the greatest historical emitter of greenhouse gases – meet in Belem, Brazil, for the 30th annual climate negotiations amid increasing disappointment at the limited movement in phasing out oil, gas, and coal, which are leading to planetary collapse and civil liberties infringements.

"Coal and petroleum corporations and their state sponsors have claimed for many years that economic growth depends on coal, oil, and gas. But research shows that in the name of economic growth, they have instead promoted profit and profits without red lines, violated entitlements with widespread immunity, and harmed the climate, ecosystems, and oceans."

Environmental Discussions and International Pressure

Cop30 occurs as the Philippines, Mexico, and Jamaica are suffering from superstorms that were worsened by higher atmospheric and ocean temperatures, with nations under growing pressure to take decisive steps to oversee fossil fuel firms and stop extraction, government funding, authorizations, and demand in order to adhere to a landmark ruling by the international court of justice.

In recent days, disclosures showed how over five thousand three hundred fifty fossil fuel industry lobbyists have been given entry to the UN environmental negotiations in the past four years, hindering emission reductions while their paymasters drill for unprecedented amounts of oil and natural gas.

Analysis Process and Findings

The quantitative analysis is based on a first-of-its-kind location-based project by researchers who analyzed data on the known sites of oil and gas infrastructure locations with population information, and records on vital habitats, climate outputs, and native communities' territories.

A third of all functioning oil, coal, and natural gas sites coincide with multiple essential environments such as a marsh, jungle, or river system that is teeming with biodiversity and critical for CO2 absorption or where environmental decline or disaster could lead to habitat destruction.

The true international scale is probably higher due to gaps in the recording of oil and gas sites and limited census information across countries.

Ecological Inequity and Native Populations

The findings reveal long-standing environmental inequity and racism in contact to oil, gas, and coal mining sectors.

Native communities, who comprise five percent of the world's residents, are unequally subjected to life-shortening oil and gas facilities, with 16% facilities situated on Indigenous territories.

"We face intergenerational battle fatigue … We physically cannot endure [this]. We have never been the starters but we have borne the force of all the violence."

The expansion of oil, gas, and coal has also been connected with property seizures, cultural pillage, community division, and loss of livelihoods, as well as violence, online threats, and legal actions, both penal and civil, against local representatives peacefully opposing the building of pipelines, mining sites, and additional facilities.

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