It’s easy to blame petrostates – but self-proclaimed ‘climate leaders’ like the US and UK are driving the crisis | Tessa Khan

In thrall to the oil and gas industries, wealthy nations are backing calamitous projects. But the tide is turning

• Tessa Khan is executive director of the climate action organisation Uplift

It is a delusion to believe that the world's climate is being pushed to the brink solely by undemocratic petrostates such as Russia and Saudi Arabia. The truth is that about half of all planned oil and gas developments between now and 2050 will be sanctioned by wealthy governments that position themselves as climate leaders: the US, Canada, Australia, Norway and the UK.

It is the countries that like to think of themselves as the good guys that are driving the climate crisis - and not just because of historical emissions and the high-carbon lifestyles of our middle class. It is because our governments refuse to take one of the most obvious actions needed to stop the crisis: keeping oil and gas in the ground. As we have heard time and again, governments are planning to sanction vastly more oil and gas than can be burned in a world with a safe climate.

Tessa Khan is a lawyer and the executive director of the climate action organisation Uplift