Saudi’s Prince Abdulaziz calls IEA’s net-zero road map ‘La La Land sequel’

Saudi’s Prince Abdulaziz calls IEA’s net-zero road map ‘La La Land sequel’

Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman has read the International Energy Agency's (IEA) recent blockbuster report outlining a road map for the world to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and is not impressed.

 

"I would have to express my view that I believe it is a sequel of [the] La La Land movie," Prince Abdulaziz told reporters after Opec+ ministers met to affirm production levels through July. "Why should I take it seriously?"

 

The IEA's road map concluded that if the world were to slash carbon emissions to net-zero over the next three decades, global oil supplies would need to shrink more than 8% annually, down to 24 million bpd in 2050, from pre-pandemic levels of just above 100 million bpd, a Saudi Gazette report said. That would mean no new oil and gas upstream projects should be developed.

 

But it is not only the IEA that has roiled the oil industry. IOCs are scaling back major swaths of their oil and gas portfolios under environmental pressure from regulators, climate change activists and investors.

 

Within a span of two days in late May, shareholders at ExxonMobil and Chevron delivered sharp rebukes to the companies over their sustainability plans, while a court in