FILE PHOTO: The Saudi Aramco logo pictured at the company’s oil facility in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia, October 12, 2019. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo
Saudi officials said the switch from hydrocarbons could take decades, necessitating continued investment in conventional resources. Osinbajo said the call to ban the funding of fossil fuel projects no distinction between upstream oil and coal exploration; and gas power plants for grid balancing. “Stopping the use of gas means that we cannot use LPG for clean cooking stoves to replace the use of kerosene, firewood, and charcoal which are dirtier fuels that are widely used for cooking and other domestic purposes, particularly in the rural areas. The use of firewood means deforestation, cutting down trees and of course desertification and then the loss of our carbon sinks,” he said.
The existing renewable and fossil fuel substitutes are currently unable to fully meet the world’s growing energy requirements, he said. “We need to work in parallel until alternatives are ready to shoulder a bigger piece of the growing energy demand in the future,” Nasser said, adding that concerns over affordability, availability and energy security are otherwise pushing consumers back to coal.