What if oil and gas were the key to solving climate change?
The basic idea is quite simple: If we shift the primary end use of oil and gas from combustion to building materials, there is no need for hydrocarbons to remain locked beneath the earth’s surface in order to address climate change. In fact, the scale and urgency of climate change requires we tap these resources to build a sustainable future.
It’s a story of two imperatives. The first is well understood: To stay within the limits of planetary warming that the overwhelming scientific consensus views as tolerable, we cannot continue to power the economy with combustion. The International Energy Agency and Carbon Tracker Initiative have already identified a planetary “carbon budget,” estimating we can burn only about one-fifth of the untapped oil and gas currently on the books of publicly traded companies and state-owned enterprises.
Let us be clear: We’re on the side of science. To keep global warming as close to 1.5 degrees as possible, we need to stop burning things—oil, gas, not to mention coal and biomass—as fast as possible.
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