Speaking at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum 2021, the Secretary-General of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Mohammad Barkindo, showed support for the adoption of electric vehicles and renewable energies to reduce emissions.

He, however, stressed that the world would continue to need more energy for many years. According to him, oil and gas combined, are forecast to still supply over 50% of the world’s energy needs by 2045, with oil to account for 27% and gas to account for 25%. He referred to the Organisation’s World Oil Outlook 2020 that showed that the global oil sector requires a cumulative investment of $12.6 trillion through to 2045.

Excerpts from his submission:

“Although there are some who believe the oil and gas industries should not be part of the energy future, that they should be consigned to the past, and that the future is one that can be dominated by renewables and electric vehicles, it is important to state clearly that the science does not tell us this, and the statistics related to the blight of energy poverty do not tell us this either.”

“The science and statistics tell us that we need to reduce emissions and use energy more efficiently. Renewables are coming of age, with wind and solar expanding quickly, but — even by 2045 in our World Oil Outlook —they are only estimated to make up just over 20 per cent of the global energy mix.”

“We appreciate that some will view this as an OPEC forecast, dispute the numbers, and state that the organisation is against renewables.”

“In response, it is clear that many OPEC member countries have great solar and wind resources, and huge investments are being made in this field.”

“OPEC welcomes the development of renewables. However, we do not see any realistic outlook projecting in their business-as-usual base cases that renewables will come anywhere close to overtaking oil and gas in the decades ahead.”

“In terms of electric vehicles, there is no doubt that they will continue to see expansion in the transportation sector.”

“We support their development in a sustainable manner. However, for many of the world’s population, electric vehicles do not offer a viable alternative to the internal combustion engine, primarily due to cost.”

“Moreover, there is also debate about how environmentally friendly they are considering their build process, especially the required batteries, and the sourcing of the vehicles’ electricity.”