Energy policy advisors warn decarbonisation goals won't be met

Energy policy advisors have warned that governments and industries will miss current decarbonisation and net zero targets.

Economist Christof Ruhl, senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Centre on Global Energy Policy, noted: “Tens of thousands of companies, industries and governments have given themselves targets, and it’s obvious many of them won’t be met.”

He argued “there is no way” a 1.5 or two-degree rise in global temperatures will be prevented “unless there is an economic collapse” and said: “Then what do people do? They can become cynical, or they can see the weather behaving even more strangely and double up [their efforts].”

Rob McLeod, head of energy risk solutions at global energy and commodities firm Hartree Partners, argued: “We need to focus both on fossil fuel and SAF.

“Fossil jet fuel demand is going to continue growing for decades. [But] without investment, conventional oil production declines 4%-6% a year.

No one thinks demand will decline that quickly, so unless we invest, we’re going to see demand outpace supply.”