The importance of climate mitigation actions aimed at reducing fossil fuel production and keeping these resources in the ground has been acknowledged within the scientific community for over a decade, gaining significant visibility through the work of McGlade and Ekins in 2015, published in Nature. However, most research focuses on defining the volume of unextractable fossil fuels rather than their precise geographic distribution. Geographical methods and cartography, on the other hand, can provide essential spatial support for phasing-out policies by addressing the “where” with varying levels of detail.
In this context, since 2015, the research group Climate Change, Territories, Diversity at the University of Padua has been developing a Atlas of Just Fossil Fuel Transition. The project operates without dedicated funding, relying instead on the availability of human resources, which makes its progress intermittent. Within the Atlas, country-scale studies are conducted using GIS-based geographical analyses to identify, particularly in areas of high biological and cultural diversity, which fossil fuel reserves should remain unexploited. To date, various regions have been analyzed, including parts of the Amazon rainforest, Italy, and the Arctic Circle—recognized as a new frontier for petroleum exploration and expansion (Codato et al., 2023; Diantini, 2022; Codato et al., 2019; Facchinelli et al., 2019; Trivellato et al., 2019; Diantini et al., 2018; Diantini, 2016; De Marchi et al., 2015).
The Atlas aims to safeguard the human rights of local communities bearing the costs and impacts of the oil industry, preserve biodiversity within these regions, and support mitigation policies to combat climate change. Furthermore, GIScience tools facilitate the visualization of areas where fossil fuel extraction should cease, enabling the design of energy transition and phasing-out scenarios.
From a multi-scalar geographical perspective, the Atlas of Just Fossil Fuel Transition highlights priority areas where refraining from exploiting hydrocarbon reserves can generate significant social and environmental benefits, promote climate and social justice, and activate potential pathways for sustainable development to address the ongoing climate crisis.
The ultimate goal of the “Atlas of Just Fossil Fuel Transition” project is to address the challenge of transitioning away from fossil fuels by identifying the “how” and “where” to leave oil underground. It seeks to encourage “yasunization” initiatives that integrate international climate goals with the rights of nature and the communities living in harmony and symbiosis with natural ecosystems (Devall, 1980).
