Chief Executive Officer of energy giant Shell, Wael Sawan, has argued that cutting oil and gas production would be “dangerous and irresponsible”.
In an interview with the BBC, he indicated that as moves to renewable energy were not happening fast enough, the world still “desperately needs oil and gas“.
“What would be dangerous and irresponsible is cutting oil and gas production so that the cost of living, as we saw last year, starts to shoot up again,” he added.
According to him, increased demand from China and a cold winter in Europe could push energy prices and bills higher again.
Mr Sawan said an international bidding war for gas last year saw poorer countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh unable to afford liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments that were instead diverted to Northern Europe.
“They took away LNG from those countries and children had to work and study by candlelight,” he said. “If we’re going to have a transition it needs to be a just transition that doesn’t just work for one part of the world.”
In recent times, leaders have pledged to keep the world from warming by more than 1.5C this century and as such are ready to ditch fossil fuels for greener alternatives.
In 2022, the European Commission outlined how the EU would speed up its shift to green energy to end its dependency on Russian oil and gas. Many countries do not have the infrastructure to move to more sustainable forms of energy.