Steve MacLellan

“In response to mounting criticism for its climate shortfalls,” the IEA “has clearly identified their solution to these critiques: a public relations effort that bears a striking resemblance to the spin coming from the oil and gas industry itself,” she writes. “The perspective that Big Oil and Gas are onboard to plan their own necessary demise is either impressive cognitive dissonance, revisionist history, or simple denial.”

“Simply put, there is no room for new fossil fuel production in a safer climate future,” but “this is not a welcome message for the fossil fuel sector,” she says. “So instead, the plan to save the world according to the IEA comes from the same songbook as the fossil fuel sector itself: we need everybody from all parts of the energy sector to come together around solutions—as long as those ‘solutions’ don’t get right to the point of actually phasing out fossil fuels. This type of strategy—ignoring power and pretending that everyone is showing up to the table with good faith or adequate solutions—has repeatedly failed the climate, whilst protecting the status quo for the fossil fuel industry and its profits.”