Last December at Cop28 in Dubai, a frequent source of frustration for me and my Guardian colleagues was the ease with which major fossil fuel producers like the US, UK and Norway pointed the finger at the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf states as the climate villains, while boasting about their own climate credentials with minimal pushback.

It wasn’t just the hypocrisy that was so infuriating, it was also the depressing reality of having endured another UN climate summit that failed to deliver on phasing out fossil fuels – despite the mounting death and destruction in countries least responsible for the climate emergency.

So what could our reporting team do to expose the hypocrisy and selective accounting of countries such as the US, UK, Norway, Canada and Australia? Cue the petrostates rabbit hole, as we began to investigate the wealthy western countries that are leading in global oil and gas expansion.

But first, this week’s most important reads.

A classic petrostate – think Saudi Arabia, Russia, Nigeria and Venezuela – is a country that is highly dependent on oil and gas fossil fuel revenues. But this definition excludes wealthy countries that are not economically dependent on oil and gas revenue but continue to expand production, despite having the technological capacity and financial resources to transition to renewables. These high-capacity, low-dependency countries could – and should under the legally binding Paris accords – be leading the green transition. It’s these expansionist countries that we’re calling out in our new series The other petrostates.

In collaboration with some brilliant (and very patient) researchers at the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), we found that a surge in new oil and gas production in 2024 could unleash almost 12bn tonnes of planet-heating emissions, with the world’s wealthiest countries leading the expansion – in spite of their bold climate commitments. In fact, high-capacity, low-dependence countries such as the US, UK, and Norway – also known as the other petrostates – handed out 825 new licences in 2023, the highest number since records began.

The data revealed a deep-seated inequity and climate justice issue that developing countries have for years tried to raise at the annual UN climate talks. It’s worth adding that the same wealthy countries are also pushing ahead with massive tax giveaways for industry-led “false solutions” like carbon capture and storage and “blue” hydrogen, which are inefficient, unjust and economically damaging.

Harjeet Singh from the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative told me from Delhi: “The hypocrisy of wealthy nations, historically responsible for the climate crisis, is staggering as they continue to invest heavily in fossil fuels, putting the world on track for unimaginable catastrophe while claiming to be climate leaders.”

The US stands out, by a long way, as the biggest producer – and arguably also the biggest hypocrite (Venture Global’s CP1 plant, in Louisiana, pictured top). Joe Biden is the self-proclaimed climate president, yet our reporting shows that his administration has handed out 1,453 new oil and gas licences – accounting for half the global total since 2021, and 20% more than Donald Trump. John Sterman, a climate policy expert at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) told my colleague Oliver Milman: “The US has become a petrostate and is still, even under President Biden, permitting new drilling.”

In part, the hypocrisy is tied to the international emissions accounting system, in which countries are only held accountable for the greenhouse gases generated at home and not for the downstream emissions generated by oil and gas exported overseas. But political capture is also real: the oil and gas industry continues to invest big on political influence in petrostates, spending $1.25bn (£1bn) on lobbying in Washington and more than $650m (£504m) in federal campaign contributions over the past decade, according to OpenSecrets, a US nonprofit that tracks political financing.

The IISD analysis also showed that fossil fuel firms, which sent almost 2,500 lobbyists to the climate negotiations in Dubai, claiming to be part of the solution, are plowing more money into developing new oil and gas sites than at any time since the 2015 Paris climate deal.

Look out for more analysis and on-the-ground reporting in our new series from Louisiana, Canada, Australia and Norway, as well the classic petrostate and Cop29 host Azerbaijan, among others.

Read more from The other petrostates series:

The good news

The bad news

Down to Earth readers on the eco-friendly changes they made for the planet

Swedish subscriber Lina Thorell Nordström wrote in to tell us about her transition from a family car to a family cargo bike. “It’s probably the best thing we’ve ever bought,” she says. “I use it to take the small kids to preschool, and then I leave it at the station to go to work. We use it to run errands, to go grocery shopping, to take our small kids to their activities, to get ice-cream, to go on bike rides with people of different ages and abilities. My eldest, 13, even uses it to see friends, go to the beach and move around town more easily.”

What can’t it do? “It’s a win-win-win situation,” Nordström says. “A win for the environment through less emissions, a win for one’s personal economy as it’s so much cheaper than a car and a win for one’s health, as it still needs a bit of pedalling.”

Let us know the positive change you’ve made in your life by replying to this newsletter, or emailing us via downtoearth@theguardian.com

Profiling the Earth’s most at-risk animals

Population: about 75
Location: Ujung Kulon national park, Indonesia
Status: critically endangered

This dusky grey animal with a single 10-inch horn is the most endangered species of rhino. Once found throughout south-east Asia and beyond, they are now only sited in Ujung Kulon national park, in Java.

For more on wildlife at threat, visit the Age of Extinction page.

One image that sums up the week in environmental news

Credit: The Donkey Sanctuary

Donkeys on the Kenyan island of Lamu are dying from eating plastic. As the availability of grass for grazing reduces, they are foraging for food in piles of rubbish, and scientists fear other animals are being similarly affected by human pollution.

For more of the week’s best environmental pictures, catch up on The week in wildlife here.