Copublished with Andy Gheorgiu Consulting, BankTrack, CEED, Food and Water Watch, Friends of the Earth France, Market Forces, Rainforest Action Network, ReCommon, SFOC, StandEarth and Urgewald
2 December 2025 – The world is facing an unprecedented boom in LNG development according to a new mapping project launched today, with 279 new LNG projects planned around the world (1). Backed by global banks, this is driving gas expansion and will add billions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions, destroying any hope of achieving global climate goals. It also threatens the health and wellbeing of local communities and impacts biodiversity. The organizations behind the new “ExitLNG” website are urging financial institutions to withdraw their support.
Plans to build 279 new liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects are identified in a new online map, based on data from the Global Oil & Gas Exit List 2024, showing the extent of countries impacted by LNG expansion (2). The site also highlights the companies involved, the banks that finance them, and the risks for communities and biodiversity.
It shows that the United States is dominating the boom in LNG exports, accounting for 40% of the increase in planned export capacities (38 projects), driven in part by US President Donald Trump’s fossil fuel agenda, followed by Russia (20%, 18 projects) and Qatar (8%, 3 projects). The highest number of planned import facilities are in the Asia Pacific region, with the most terminals in China (34% of the increase in planned import capacities, 49 projects), followed by India (8%, 11 projects) and Vietnam (7%, 14 projects).
Final investment decisions for new export terminals have surged in 2025, adding to the expected wave in gas supply, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) (3), driving the development of new gas fields (4) and threatening global emissions targets.
Overall, the new export facilities are estimated to generate more than 10 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions by 2030, comparable to the annual emissions of the United States and the European Union combined (4).
The worldwide rush to build is steering us towards disaster – for the climate and for local communities, and we will all pay the price. It is no wonder that people are increasingly raising their voices against these projects, which threaten their health and livelihoods. But despite these concerns, banks keep pouring billions into LNG expansion, regardless of the social and climate costs.
Justine Duclos-Gonda, Oil & Gas Campaigner at Reclaim Finance
QatarEnergy and the US-based company Venture Global are the biggest export terminal developers, with their planned LNG export terminal projects that will result in emission of over 1.2 Gt of CO2e by 2030. The French major TotalEnergies ranks fifth, with projects estimated to contribute to emit over 300 million tonnes of CO2e by 2030.
Communities are suffering from climate impacts and economic devastation. Liquefied gas is making things worse. The world does not need any fossil fuel expansion: not a single new frack field, pipeline, LNG tanker or terminal. Yet, the US government, fossil fuel companies, banks and insurance companies are pushing gas around the globe, creating the biggest fossil fuel buildout of our lifetime.
Ruth Breech, LNG Campaign Manager, Rainforest Action Network
Despite these impacts, global banks have continued to back LNG developers, funneling US$174 billion into LNG expansion between 2021 and 2024. Three quarters of this support comes from just five countries: the United States, Japan, China, Canada and France, with three banks (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Mizuho Financial Group and JPMorgan Chase) each contributing over US$10 billion.
European banks including Santander, ING, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole, and Groupe BPCE are also identified as among the top financiers of LNG expansion.
The organizations are urging banks to adopt comprehensive policies to end all financial services for new LNG projects and the companies developing new LNG facilities.
Companies building new LNG terminals are driving expansion along the fossil gas value chain. New LNG export terminals in the US and Mexico, for example, are pushing the destructive US fracking industry’s gas onto global markets – especially to Europe and Asia. In those regions, new LNG import terminals beget new waves of gas-fired power buildout. Given that fossil gas is no less destructive for people and the planet than coal, halting the LNG boom is essential to prevent fossil lock-in and to support the sustainable transition of our energy systems,
Fiona Hauke, Oil and Gas Researcher at Urgewald
The proposed expansion of fossil fuels like LNG in biodiversity hotspots in Southeast Asia, such as the Coral Triangle, Verde Island Passage, and the Mekong Delta, is an unacceptable attack on our future. LNG development poses a grave threat to the marine life that sustains the food and livelihoods of millions of fisherfolk and communities. These critical areas must be immediately designated no-go zones for destructive activities, like LNG.
Gerry Arances, Executive Director of Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development, the Philippines
US Banks and insurance companies have a duty to protect communities and their bottom lines- expanding LNG is way too risky for pocketbooks, people and the planet. We have to stop Wall Street profiting off of fossil fuels–instead align with the rest of the world to deeply cut emissions and push for a just transition towards renewables for healthy communities.
Ruth Breech, LNG Campaign Manager, Rainforest Action Network
This worldwide LNG boom is a curse, both for communities directly affected by these toxic projects and those suffering the consequences of climate change—which are too often one and the same. This already ongoing disaster is largely bankrolled by French banks. This is the case in Mozambique, where Crédit Agricole and Société Générale have still not given up on supporting TotalEnergies in its Mozambique LNG megaproject, which is at the center of multiple human rights scandals and two criminal complaints filed against the major,
Lorette Philippot, Private Finance Campaigner at Friends of the Earth France
