COP, Look, Listen: Issue 3

Welcome back to COP, LOOK, LISTEN. As leader’s speeches continue today, many are listening carefully for wording around ‘phase down’ or ‘phase out’ of fossil fuels. This is because, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) – the “demand trajectory for a 1.5 degree world leaves no room for new [oil and gas] fields”. The IEA’s latest Net Zero scenario implies a managed decline of global oil and gas production of 2% globally per year to 2030 and 4-5% between 2030 and 2050.

But with this summit held in the sixth largest petroleum exporting nation worldwide, the fossil fuel industry feels more empowered than ever to push against such scenarios. Last week, the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) published a scathing letter of response to one of the scientific reports cited above. It reads like a bingo card of fossil-fuelled misdirection…

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