Economics Events, Seminars and Brown Bag Talks

Monday, March 13, 2023, 4:00 p.m. MDT
Location Tory Breezeway 1
Event Type: IPE Workshop

You've seen the ads telling you that Canada's oil sands industry is stepping up to lower emissions and fight climate change. You're told this is a safe bet because the world will continue to use oil and gas. You might have been scolded for questioning this, and perhaps had it pointed out to you that your phone and your toothbrush are made from oil products. But, when it comes to climate change, what is our oil industry really betting on? Not the continued consumption of oil, but the continued willingness to pay a high price for oil and gas and, arguably, increasing consumption of oil and gas year-over-year. Neither of these are, by any means, guaranteed in a world acting on climate change. In fact, both are decidedly less likely than the alternatives. Analysis of global energy markets in a world acting on climate change suggests that large decreases in global oil consumption and real-dollar oil prices are likely to accompany global action on climate change. Yes, the world is still using oil in this scenario, but that doesn’t insulate us from the magnitude of disruption that such a change in global oil markets would portend.