Even the increasing robustness of the climate change lobby remains insufficient to push back the determination of the ‘big players’ in the global oil and gas industry, if some of the recent reports on the posture of the oil majors are anything to go by. Just days ago, Shell, another of the global energy giants set out its stall on the issue of cutting oil recovery levels, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Wael Sawan bluntly dismissing such an option as “irresponsible,” at a time when, he says, the world economy is still dependent on oil.’’ More than that, the Shell executive has declared that such an act would hardly be contemplated at a time when the world economy is still dependent on fossil fuels.
In a recent interview with the BBC, Sawan is quoted as saying that given the reality that “the energy system of today continues to desperately need oil and gas,” such a position is out of the question. “Before we are able to let go of that, we need to make sure that we have developed the energy systems of the future — and we are not yet, collectively, moving at the pace (required for) that to happen,” is the best message that the Shell executive could send to global climate changers. Coming just around five months before the COP 28 summit in oil-rich Dubai the remark by the Shall official provides an unmistakable indication of just what the climate-changers will be up against in Dubai in November.
The comment by the Shell executive points the way to a faceoff between United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Gutteres, climate lobbyists and climate scientists, on the one hand and the giants in the oil industry, on the other, not least the oil-rich countries of the Middle East that have taken an immovable position on the issue of maximizing fossil fuel recovery, in Dubai in November.
If it appears that Sultan al-Jaber, Head of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, one of the world’s largest oil producers, and the designated Chairman of COP 28 is on record of having embraced idea of the oil and gas industry targeting the arrival at net zero greenhouse gas emissions by or before 2050, he is hardly likely to queue up behind the hardline climate changers, some of whom are almost certain to find their way to Dubai for the COP 28 forum.
Guterres himself describes investments in new fossil fuels infrastructure as “moral and economic madness” since such investments “will soon be stranded assets — a blot on the landscape and a blight on investment portfolios.” The Chairman-designate for COP 28 reportedly does not share that view. He reportedly asserts that it would be “dangerous and irresponsible” to cut oil and gas production since he asserts that this would result in a rise in the cost of living. The Shell official, Sawan, is reportedly advocating a “globally responsible” posture transition to renewable energy.
