“The oil and gas industry, in addition to trying to seize this moment for all the profits it can squeeze, is trying to lock in another generation of extraction emissions,” he says.Finley also thinks that companies will benefit as politicians look for ways to stabilize the energy market—though he doesn’t think that it will necessarily come at the expense of a broader shift to green energy.
“We used the words ‘energy transition,’ and in our minds we jumped to the end state. We figured that if we’re not using fossil fuels in a future world, then we don’t need to invest in fossil fuels,” he says. “But you need a functioning energy system that delivers secure, affordable, reliable energy at each discrete point in time between now and that end state. And the reality is, today, that means fossil fuels.
Dieter Helm, professor of economic policy at the University of Oxford who has written several books on the world’s addiction to fossil fuels, says that policy shifts tied to the industry’s short-term wartime profits aren’t likely to make or break 2050 net-zero climate targets. What’s more, fixating on them loses sight of the much bigger picture.
He points out that western oil companies are only one part of the industry; national oil companies like Saudi Aramco control more than half of global oil and gas production—but they haven’t been under the same pressure to decarbonize as their free-market counterparts. Also, the trends that will take place among advanced economies may be eclipsed by developing nations leaning into fossil fuels as their economies and populations grow.
“This is a tragedy, but this is the reality of what’s actually happening, as opposed to this story—which I wish was true but isn’t—that we’re all in this together on a net-zero transition and we’re going to crack climate change within 28 years,” he says. “There’s no path that we’re currently on which looks anything like that.”
See backward to 2008 global financial crisis, its preceded by high oil prices and profits to oil companies and their arguments in favor of high prices and profits for greater capital investments in industry. Now any different except new reasons. Consumers are help less victims.
Don’t blame me! I don’t use oil! I ride the bus!
No because they wish to control our elections so they can put republicans back in charge and be allowed to trash the planet and nobody even believe they are or care
i can't believe humans are so ....