Oil and gas will be around a lot longer than some think, despite climate change goals. Global ambitions to tackle climate change are being opposed by staggering concerns about energy security and affordability, according to a new report by RBC, which quotes that oil and natural gas are going to be used for quite a while.
A new report says that while countries like Canada are drawing down on oil production, many other countries around the world are now looking to produce more and require us to do the same – even though it goes against some of our goals and values as a globe.
The report states that countries like Canada and America will most likely experience rising temperatures as a result of greenhouse gases emissions and therefore, they say there must be major production in oil and gas to ensure their survival. That’s why the authors of the report note in Canada and the United States, where there is a push for more oil and natural gas production, argue that oil and gas will continue to be an important source of energy. “In the next few months, countries like Canada and the United States will have to determine exactly how they can produce more oil and gas while still meeting climate goals,” says one of the report’s authors.
The RBC report highlights how many governments around the world have also begun to offer subsidies to offset high gasoline and power prices, including “usual climate leaders” such as Germany, California, and British Columbia.
The Canadian government must now make a decision on how to address climate change as energy needs continue to meet the increase of worldwide population. Even after oil demand peaks, Guldimann said “the pace of that decline, and the steepness of how quickly that decline happens, is fundamentally uncertain.” Investments in clean energy are happening, but instead of replacing fossil fuels, much of that energy is offset by rising consumption around the world as the population grows.
As much as the government likes to talk about how they are working towards a greener future with less emissions, there isn’t enough urgency that is being used in these efforts. There has been talk of implementing green infrastructure as well as other ways of reducing emissions through technology but it hasn’t been acted upon yet, especially not in the way that many people would like to see it act-ed upon if we’re going to set targets to reduce the amount of CO2 which has been emitted into the atmosphere. At the end of the day, even if we can make great strides when it comes to reducing CO2 levels in our atmosphere, it will take time for them to actually go down and at that point in time, our planet will have already reached a tipping point unfortunately.
Oil prices dropped and went higher as some economic activity was dampened in China, and commodity prices swung wildly. The Chinese government is also working to restrain inflation by discouraging banks from lending money, which is making businesses cut production in order to avoid surplus manufacturing. This is a good thing for other oil owners because it means that the supply of oil isn’t likely to drop too soon, which will influence them not to cut back on the amount of resources they’re putting into producing more.
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