World will still rely on oil and gas in 2040 says Exxon — Renewables no threat to fossil fuels

If there were grand profits to be made from renewables the big rapacious energy giants would be buying in to solar and selling out of coal and oil. They’ve done their research. The fantasy fear campaign would have us think that Big-oil is afraid of renewables, but they truth is that if renewables were worth a lot, big-oil would have bought them.*

This week Exxon released their report on the energy outlook for the decades to come. Not much has changed since the last report in 2014, even though 40,000 people met in Paris and did historic breakthrough type things.

Exxon says oil and gas will still dominate energy in 2040

By DAVID KOENIG The Associated Press

The way oil giant Exxon Mobil sees it, the global energy landscape won’t be radically different in 2040 than it is today.

Oil and gas will remain king, accounting for an even slightly larger share of the energy supply. Coal will fall behind natural gas to become the third-largest source of energy.

Exxon forecasts that emerging renewables such as solar and wind power will triple but remain small — just 4 percent of the world’s energy. And carbon emissions will continue rising until around 2030, when cuts in industrialized nations gain traction lead an overall reduction.

Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon, told his shareholders in May last year, that ‘his firm hadn’t invested in renewable energy because “We choose not to lose money on purpose.”

That was apparently met with loud applause.

The main Exxon predictions for the world are that oil use will grow by 25%, natural gas will grow by 50%, coal will slip a bit, but all the trendy renewables will be producing only 4%:

— Global energy demand will rise 25 percent from 2014 to 2040, led by developing nations in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. The International Energy Agency recently forecast a one-third increase by 2040.

— Oil use will grow 25 percent in that period, although it will account for a slightly smaller share of overall energy, and use of natural gas will jump 56 percent.

— Together, oil and gas will account for 57 percent of the world’s energy, up from 56 percent in 2014.

— Coal’s share will slide from will slip to 20 percent from 26 percent.

—Nuclear and biomass will each account for 8 percent of energy in 2040, hydro 3 percent, and other renewables 4 percent. Exxon thinks alternative fuels will become a staple in power generation but grow more slowly in transportation because of technology and cost issues.

— Carbon emissions will rise about 11 percent between 2014 and 2040. Emissions will fall 21 percent in industrialized nations but rise 32 percent in developing ones, notably India and countries in Latin America.

What about the success of Paris? Exxon studied each nation’s commitments and assessed their likely changes, but they aren’t going to air details of that unpopular laundry:

[William Colton, the oil giant's chief strategist,] declined to say whether Exxon believes the goals of the climate-change deal will be met.

*And yes, Shell, and BP did buy renewables, but they didn’t sell their fossil fuel assets, did they?

Thanks to GWPF for the tip.

VN:F [1.9.22_1171]

please wait... Rating: 8.7/10 (99 votes cast)