Fossil Fuel Development Projects on UNESCO Protected Sites to Increase by 70 Percent, Report Finds

The rate of fossil fuel extraction from UNESCO-protected heritage sites is expected to increase by over 70 percent over the course of several decades, despite global agreements to stop the practice, according to a new report from the German research group Leave it in the Ground Initiative (LINGO).

The findings come ahead of the group’s participation at the COP16 biodiversity summit set to take place in Cali, Colombia on October 21.

The report, Extraction at Any Cost, published as part of LINGO’s Protected Carbon Project, reveals that more than 20 UNESCO Biosphere Reserves and World Heritage Sites are at risk as sites of fossil fuel extraction. The report found that 15 projects are in planning stages and have not yet been started.

A major development project on one of the UNESCO-protected sites list is the Hail and Ghasha project, a $17 billion subsea development extending to the Marawah Biosphere Reserve, located in a chain of islands off the western coast of the United Arab Emirates. In December 2023, the United Nations’ COP28 climate talks drew public protests in Dubai, with activists arguing the UAE’s selection as the host conflicted with the country’s reliance on fossil fuels as its main economic driver. In June, the country was selected to host the next edition of the World Conservation Congress, which meets every four years, in October 2025. The IUCN is planning to discuss a 190-member Global Biodiversity Framework, aimed at large-scale efforts to conserve threatened ecosystems.

The report’s authors criticized the expansion of oil and gas projects, saying that they contribute to climate and biodiversity crises by keeping the industry “fully operational” and undermining conservation efforts to “rapidly phase out fossil fuels.”

“It’s alarming that state-owned companies are preparing to drill in protected regions beyond 2030,” said Alice McGown, a researcher and co-author of the report.

UNESCO has, in the past, attempted to influence government leaders and corporate entities away from major development projects on threatened sites, launching a set of guidelines in 2022 and ‘no-go’ heritage sites to be left untouched. In the guidelines, UNESCO, which doesn’t have any official enforcement authority over the sites, said that corporate development projects “run a considerable risk of affecting the financial return of companies through possible reputational damage, litigation, compensation claims, shareholder divestment and reduced access to financing.”