The full implications of the most recent report of the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) are just beginning to sink in.
What that report said was that if the world is to get anywhere near its lower carbon goals, as set out in the Paris Agreement of 2015, then all future investment in oil and gas development must cease — now, immediately, just like that.
Of course this clashes head-on with reality. Saudi Arabia is planning $120 billion in new oil investments through Aramco alone. The United Arab Emirates is intending something of the same order. Russian companies are also planning massive new oil investments, while in the U.S., that nation's vast shale sector, which has already put America at the forefront of world oil and gas production, is poised to start up again.