Despite the contradictions involved, we have to abandon oil
This week has produced a spectacular batch of news stories highlighting the many contradictions facing us as we embark on the greatest technological transition in our history: abandoning fossil fuels.
Shell, one of the world’s largest oil companies, has been forced by a Dutch court to cut its emissions much faster than originally planned: 45% by 2030, with the court arguing that the company’s decarbonization targets were incompatible with the Paris Agreement.
The news, which could (and should) trigger a wave of similar cases around the world, coincides with increased pressure on the boards of two other of the world’s largest oil companies, America’s Exxon and Chevron, some of whose shareholders are demanding faster responses to the climate emergency, rather than merely greenwashing.
The oil industry will find it increasingly difficult to ignore social pressure to reduce its emissions. We are facing a fundamental change, the end of the oil era, which could lead to a financial meltdown among the companies dedicated to exploiting a resource that is still far from being exhausted, but which is becoming increasingly uneconomical to exploit. Over the course of the next thirty years, 80% of the oil industry is set to disappear.
