Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, is a realist. This week, he compared the International Energy Agency’s recent net-zero emissions analysis to “La La Land.” Because a world in which the half-brother of an autocratic prince attempts to manipulate the price of a vital commodity in league with a clutch of other autocracies and struggling petrostates, even as that commodity stokes a climate disaster ... yes, that sounds totally normal and good.
The IEA’s “roadmap” is la-la land in the sense that it requires a “total transformation” of global energy. That is difficult precisely because, with the externalities of emissions largely unpriced, we rely heavily on an incumbent system predicated on “cheap” fossil fuels. But what then? The status quo means doubling down on climate change. That doesn’t sound particularly realistic; like “La La Land” except set in a noirish Los Angeles clouded by wildfire smoke.
