A wonderful speech that calls out the incongruity of the oil industry’s position on climate

In perusing this recent post on Skeptical Science, I found a link to a terrific speech by a former UK diplomat (John Ashton) about the oil industry’s position on climate change.  He is responding to a speech by Shell CEO Ben van Burden, and it’s really worth a read.

Here are a few key paragraphs:

The summary that accompanies the published text of your speech also catches the eye.

It anticipates an “energy transition”. But it foresees no change “in the longer term” in the drivers of supply and demand for oil. And it urges the industry to “make its voice heard” at the COP21 climate conference. This would add “realism and practicality” to a conversation from which, by implication, these attributes are currently lacking.

In other words, the energy transition to come will be an unusual kind of transition. It will have no structural consequences for the energy system itself, or at least for the markets on which your business model depends.

Read more…

It has been clear for awhile that the fossil fuel industry (and many policy makers) don’t seem to understand the implications of the 2 C warming limit for their businesses and policies.  We can’t burn it all, but the industry is making plans as if they can.  Eventually (sooner rather than later) reality will intrude, and trillions of dollars of fossil fuel assets will be stranded.  Don’t say we didn’t warn you.