THE GUARDIAN
Oil and gas producers must convert their operations to renewable energy or face steep economic decline, the world’s chief energy adviser has said amid the forging of a new alliance of energy companies at the UN Cop28 climate summit.
Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, said: “We have to find a way to reduce fossil fuel consumption, and as such there is an important role that the oil and gas industry can play. I very much hope that they can show in Dubai that they can be part of the solution when it comes to tackling climate change.”
Birol warned that oil and gas companies would find it more difficult to operate in future. “It is not just people in Europe or the US, or Australia, who are raising the alarm – more and more people around the world, from the streets of New Delhi and Jakarta, to Nairobi and Rio. They are seeing the clear links between the continued high use of fossil fuels and the increasingly severe climate impacts they are seeing almost on a daily basis.”
Governments should bring in policies to encourage the switch, but even if they did not, on current policies fossil fuel use would peak by 2030, leaving companies with an uncertain future, he warned.
Currently only 2.5% of the capital investment of oil and gas companies goes towards renewable energy, which Birol said was insufficient.
“I very much hope we will see [from Cop28] a strong signal to energy markets that fossil fuel use needs to decline,” he told the Guardian.
Birol warned that fossil fuel companies must prepare now “for an orderly decline” rather than try to expand or continue their operations. He said the skills and technology such companies already possess could be used in renewable energy generation, if they refocused their aims.
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