We can’t turn our back on oil

As the rhetoric on climate change heats up and oil and gas become a “favourite scapegoat”, shunned by banks, investors and even oil majors themselves, the global community is making the “embarrassingly erroneous assumption” that life can continue as usual, with “abundant clean energy, available at the flick of a switch”, says Vandana Hari. Simultaneously (and hypocritically), the White House and others are publicly pushing for oil cartel Opec to pump more oil while China, India and others are refusing to promise to phase out coal-fired power generation by 2025. The fact is, countries and companies have “hopped on to the bandwagon of net-zero pledges… without roadmaps for how they will get there”. The International Energy Agency estimates that annual investment in green energy needs to treble to $4trn by 2030, while acknowledging that many of the technologies needed to reduce emissions don’t yet exist. Failing to chart a course that balances the imperatives of “environmental sustainability, economy growth and energy security” can only bring disaster. Will the petrostate governments attending the COP26 “provide a reality check” or toe the line? Or perhaps it would be best to simply “brace” for $100-a-barrel oil.