Many have imagined the Covid pandemic will usher in a new era marked by fundamental change. To some that means a low-carbon world just ticking along on alternative, green energy. The planet-destroying carbon-fuel era is over goes the refrain.
Don't bet on it.
Justin Trudeau, straining under the weight of his new $16-19 billion bitumen pipeline, has reaffirmed his fealty to a high-carbon economy for Canada. But who cares, the future is leaving the oil patch in the dust, right?
Don't bet on it.
The International Energy Agency predicts that the world is just waiting for the pandemic to pass and then we'll be devouring hydrocarbons as never before.
The IEA warns that that use of fossil fuels is likely to rebound when the crisis is over, leading to a spike in CO2.
One reason is because China and other Asian nations are putting in orders now for a new generation of coal-fired power plants to supply energy in the future.
“We see a historical decline in emissions, but unless we have the right economic recovery packages, we might see emissions again skyrocket and the decline of this year would be completely wasted," the IEA's executive director Fatih Birol told the BBC.
“Remember the 2008-2009 crashes. We immediately saw a decline in emissions, but afterwards it rebounded. We must learn from history.”
One reason is because China and other Asian nations are putting in orders now for a new generation of coal-fired power plants to supply energy in the future.
ReplyDeleteIf true then I would assume that oil and gas are too expensive!
I 'prefer' to believe that carbon fuels will decline as the world economy falters due to the fact that it's based upon bullshit, fairy tales and wishful thinking!
That every nation in the world is now shovelling out 'stimulus monies' by the truck load to keep 'free enterprise' functioning questions the very existence of capitalism and the free enterprise system.
Can anyone on this blog name one organisation , business , political party or whatever that does not have it's hand in the bag of these generous taxpayer subsidised payouts needed or not?
What we have is a Capitalist 'Correction" as the market loves to announce such things.
We are experiencing the biggest corporate bailout in history
TB
2020 will go down in history not as the age of correction , which many wish for, but the age of bullshit.
TB
We lost the plot a long time ago, TB. Governments have been hitched to the globalist wagon and, in the process, have been trained in privatizing profits and socializing losses. No finer example than the Oil Patch. The insult to that injury is that most of those profits go into foreign pockets.
ReplyDelete