A "carbon bomb" is defined as a oil or natural gas project containing at least 1 billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalent throughout the whole lifecycle. If developed and the fuel contained is burned, such undertakings pose the danger of pushing atmospheric greenhouse gas levels that keeping to internationally agreed temperature limits would be impossible.

Russia is estimated to holst 40 of such projects, and The Guardian reports that 19 of these – managed by domestic companies, Gazprom, Novatec, Rosneft, and Tatneft – are capitalized from abroad.

The British newspaper's report is based on a database compiled by the Leave it in the Ground Iniative. The data show that non-Russian financial institutions have invested total of USD 52bn in such projects – with roughly half this capital, USD 23.4bn, coming from 154 financial organizations in the US.

Other foreign investors on the list are based in, for instance, Qatar (USD 15.31bn) and the UK (USD 2.51bn). Japanese, Norwegian, Swiss and Dutch banks have also made substantial investments in Russian "carbon bombs", the data show.

Ukrainian NGO Razom We Stand tells the Guardian that investments such as these must cease immediately, saying that the money made here is both used to fuel the Russian war machine and destroy Earth's climate. The NGO proposed a permanent embargo on Russian oil, natural gas and coal.

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