Peak Oil Is Here. Well, Maybe
“I think there’s a fairly straightforward path to getting rid of about 50% of oil demand,” Bloomberg Opinion’s David Fickling says on the latest episode of Zero.
The sun is setting on crude oil.
Photographer: Michael Ciaglo/Bloomberg
Since the beginning of industrialization, growth in oil demand has been a close proxy for economic growth. Now, as we transition to clean energy, there’s a real prospect of breaking that linkage. But when the link will be broken depends on the rise of clean energy — and, to some degree, it depends on who you ask.
“If you're talking about structural decline in oil demand, until very recently, you were talking about structural decline in the global economy,” says Bloomberg Opinion columnist David Fickling, who joined Akshat Rathi on this week’s Zero to discuss peak oil. “I don't think we are talking about that now. Because we do have these quite effective substitutes.”
Last year, Fickling wrote a column that declared: “Peak Oil Has Finally Arrived. No, Really.” Although his thesis came with important caveats — Fickling is talking specifically about crude oil and specifically about oil demand — he isn’t the only oil-watcher who believes the black goo is headed for structural decline. The executive director of the International Energy Agency says so, too. “I think there's a fairly straightforward path to getting rid of about 50% of oil demand,” Fickling says on Zero.