The reality of climate science has ‘passed its verdict’ on the oil and gas industry, making the COP 28 Forum, which got underway in Dubai yesterday, a ‘moment of truth’ for the sector, Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Fatih Birol has gone on record as saying. Birol has reportedly asserted that a point has been reached where the oil and gas industry has little option but to take action on de-carbonization. With the latest IEA projections indicating that global oil and gas demand is set to peak by 2030, the IEA is asserting that in order to align with a 1.5 °C scenario, the industry’s emissions must decline by 60 per cent by 2030. Whether the current global oil recovery regime can live within those strictures is likely to be one of the key issues which COP 28 will have to confront.
