For decades, the terms “energy transition,” “peak oil,” and “bridge fuel” (in reference to natural gas) have been treated as gospel by market analysts, politicians, and activists. Basing their predictions on international promises and assumptions of “green” energy innovation, users of these terms have neglected to question whether their vision of a future without natural gas, oil, and coal can actually exist without enormous costs.
International organizations such as the United Nations and the International Energy Agency have fueled the flames of this delusion. Yearly U.N. Climate Change Conferences seek to address the “climate crisis,” and the IEA’s World Energy Outlooks have given them the tools to do so, providing Net Zero Emissions by 2050 and Announced Pledges Scenarios that provide a pathway for the world to reach its “green” goals. Since 2015, the IEA has worked to “deepen cooperation in … the growing use of clean energy technologies,” expanding beyond its 1974 original mission to “co-ordinate a collective response to major disruptions in the supply of oil.”
