The Paris Agreement sets out a framework for nations to begin to reduce emissions to limit warming of the climate system to well below 2 degrees celsius and, ideally, to limit that to as little as 1.5 degrees celsius.

6,000 years ago the Sumerians, Assyrians and Babylonians learned to recover bitumen from the of oil that emerged in puddles along the banks of the Euphrates.
In China, 3,000 ago, coal was used as a fuel for the smelting of copper.
The Persian priests of the cult of fire were the first to observe fugitive gas, perhaps ignited by lightning, and to create altars for their divinity.