After telling nations to stop investing in oil, the IEA is now pleading with the world’s most regressive regimes to open up their oil taps
What a difference a month makes. In May, the International Energy Agency (IEA) told the world that if the goal of “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions were to be met by 2050, governments needed to abide by 400 IEA “milestones,” including net zero emissions in the electricity sector by 2040, no new sales of vehicles with internal combustion engines by 2035, and building the equivalent of “the world’s current largest solar park roughly every day.”
The 400 utopian recommendations made clear the IEA’s view about the role of oil going forward: as little as possible, as soon as possible. As the IEA put it, these recommendations “include, from today, no investment in new fossil fuel supply projects.”
Fast forward less than four weeks. Now the IEA is begging OPEC and allied members, such as Russia, to increase their oil production as soon as possible. Suddenly worried about a rebounding world economy, and oil’s skyrocketing demand with it, the IEA last week said “OPEC+ [its allies] needs to open the taps to keep the world oil markets adequately supplied.”
And it advised any consumers who might be worried about possible shortages to relax, arguing that OPEC and Russia could boost oil production by two million barrels a day (mb/d), while “If sanctions on Iran are lifted, an additional 1.4 mb/d could be brought to market in relatively short order.”
For the rest of this article: https://financialpost.com/opinion/mark-milke-make-up-your-mind-iea-is-more-oil-good-or-bad