Tundra trucks and Sequoia SUVs roll off the assembly line at the Toyota plant in San Antonio, Texas, earlier this year. Even as they fear the effects of climate change, Canadians keep buying large vehicles and the gas to fuel them.
Aly Hyder Ali, the oil and gas program manager with the advocacy group Environmental Defence, celebrates what he calls the first report to say that fossil fuel production would"Current emissions reduction pledges from countries around the world are not ambitious enough to prevent further climate catastrophes," he said.The trouble with battling climate change is that it is expensive.
"Prolonged high [oil and gas] prices would result if the decline in fossil fuel investment in this scenario were to precede the expansion of clean energy and the action to cut overall energy demand," said the report.The IEA's argument is a simple economic one. When governments invest in alternatives to fossil fuels, the demand for fossil energy will fall. And as demand falls, existing oil production will be sufficient to keep prices stable.
Evidence includes U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's move last week to delay British climate goals, including a five-year delay in the ban on gas-burning cars and a nine-year delay in the phasing out of natural gas heaters. And there are fears that this kind of rollback could spread. Canada's Pierre Poilievre has promised to cut the carbon tax if elected. Former U.S. president and Republican front-runner Donald Trump offered rave reviews for Sunak's action.