Countries are spending billions to revive fossil fuel industries that collapsed during the pandemic

When fossil fuel industries collapsed during the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world could've used it as an opportunity to transition to renewable energy sources. Instead, they've poured billions of dollars into saving polluting industries instead of meeting their pledges to massively cut greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change, CNN reports.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the collapse of fossil fuel industries around the world: Oil famously tanked below $0 a barrel in April, while coal companies were projected to "never recover" from pandemic losses. But several global economies are doing their best to make sure that doesn't happen.

In Poland, for example, the government bought up $35 million in unwanted coal to help that struggling industry, CNN reports. The EU as a whole originally planned to tie its $2 trillion coronavirus relief package with its pledge for carbon neutrality, but Poland was able to wiggle its way out of that deal, and the EU only ended up putting 30 percent of the relief funds toward the climate. Canada funneled $1.1 billion into a new oil pipeline, while Australia is quickly building a new coal mine and India is opening dozens more, all under the guise of helping the economy recover from COVID-19.

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All of these contradictory moves come as countries claim they're committed to the Paris Climate Agreement and other goals for cutting emissions to avoid devastating climate change. But while emissions did reduce a bit while coronavirus lockdowns were in place, they won't help the climate in the long term, and are still far from the levels of climate action the world needs to avoid absolute catastrophe, data from the Climate Action Tracker reveals. Read more at CNN.