Rosneft CEO states that the energy transition is unrealistic

There are no profit-making sources for the "green" transition, and its implementation is an illusion, stated Igor Sechin, the Chief Executive Officer of Rosneft, while delivering a keynote speech at the Energy Panel of the 27th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The Rosneft head said that despite about 10 trillion US dollars invested in the energy transition over the past two decades worldwide, alternative energy sources have failed to replace traditional fuels. Today, wind and solar power provide less than 5% of the world's energy production, and electric vehicles account for about 3%.

Over the same period, oil, gas and coal consumption grew by a cumulative 35%, while their combined share of the global energy mix remained unchanged. Moreover, Igor Sechin noted, oil and coal consumption and the use of gas in power generation reached a new record in 2023.

“There are no profit-making sources for the "green" transition, and its implementation is an illusion, which leads to withdrawal of investments from the traditional energy sector. That is, there will be neither”, the head of Rosneft summed up.

At that, the energy transition itself is clearly underfunded. Thus, in order to meet the Paris Agreement targets, by 2030 the global spending on climate change will need to be about $9 trillion per year, which is 5 times as much as was spent in 2023. This number equals almost 10% of global GDP and more than 3 times the annual investment in global energy. It is also equivalent to the combined GDP of France, the UK and Italy. In total, to meet the Paris Agreement targets by 2050 will require more than 270 trillion dollars of investments.

Igor Sechin noted that the climate agenda will require creating a new type of infrastructure, as has been the case many times before, when in the 19th century increasing coal production required huge investments in mines, canals and railroads; developing the oil industry in the 20th century required wells, pipelines and refineries; and generating power required constructing power plants and developing a sophisticated power transmission network system.

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Rosneft
June 8, 2024