A group of 14 giant “carbon bomb” projects that are currently in planning and development is on track to single-handedly increase global greenhouse emissions 20 per cent by 2020, making it near impossible for the world to avoid runaway climate change.

That is the stark warning contained in a report released today by Greenpeace and undertaken by consultancy Ecofys, which argues that keeping global average temperature increases to under the 2ºC mark agreed by governments is almost entirely dependent on cancelling these super projects.

The report, entitled, Point Of No Return, analyses the 14 largest fossil fuel projects currently in the planning pipeline around the world, including proposals for giant open cast coal mines in China and Australia, plans to increase offshore oil and gas extraction in the Arctic and off the coast of Brazil, and highly controversial plans to expand development of Canada’s tar sands.

Taken together, the report calculates that the projects have the potential to add 6.3 gigatonnes of CO2 emissions a year by 2020, resulting in the release of 300 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through to 2050.

Ecosys predicts that the projects would result in a 20 per cent increase in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and eat up a third of the carbon budget that the International Energy Agency warned last year must be kept to if the world is to stand a reasonable chance of limiting temperature increases to 2ºC.

“With total disregard for [the] unfolding [climate] global disaster, the fossil fuel industry is planning 14 massive coal, oil and gas projects that would produce as much new carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2020 as the entire US, and delay action on climate change for more than a decade,” the report states. “The 14 massive projects discussed in this report would add a total of 300 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent (Gt CO2 e) of new emissions to the atmosphere by 2050 from the extraction, production and burning of 49,600 million tonnes of coal, 29,400 billion cubic metres of natural gas and 260,000 million barrels of oil.”

The report argues that in order to stand a 75 per cent chance of limiting temperature increases to 2ºC governments need to ensure greenhouse gas emissions peak in 2015 and then fall by five per cent a year. It calculates that about one-third of the emissions reductions needed could be achieved immediately by cancelling the 14 massive “carbon bomb” projects.

The report is bound to face criticism from the fossil fuel industry, but it echoes the findings of a host of studies from respected international institutions in recent months warning that climate-related threats are posing an increasingly severe threat to global economic security.

The World Bank, the IEA, and consultancy giant PwC all warned late last year that business-as-usual projections put the planet on track for temperature increases in excess of 4ºC by the second half of the century, while the Carbon Tracker NGO has repeatedly warned that a significant chunk of declared fossil fuel reserves cannot be burned if governments are to avoid runaway climate change.

This week also saw the World Economic Forum in Davos kick off with the release of a major report undertaken by Accenture warning that major policy reforms are urgently required to shift investment from unsustainable fossil fuel projects to low carbon alternatives.