“We should leave oil before oil leaves us,” International Energy Agency (IEA) chief economist Fatih Birol commented yesterday. “That should be our motto.”
Birol told the German monthly Internationale Politik the day will come when the world runs out of oil. But steadily rising demand and falling supply, with no dramatic spikes from now till 2015, will give the world time to adjust — assuming the world has the foresight.
“Looking at this long term,” says Birol, “it becomes clear that nothing changes whether oil runs out in 2030 or 2040 or 2050. One day, it will definitely be finished. We should prepare for that day with research and development, how we can replace oil, what kinds of living standards we will be able to maintain, what alternatives we can develop."
Last November, Birol said he’d experienced an “earthquake” in his thinking about supply and demand, owing to the growing demand for oil in China and India. His new comments are a whale of an aftershock.
Birol told the German monthly Internationale Politik the day will come when the world runs out of oil. But steadily rising demand and falling supply, with no dramatic spikes from now till 2015, will give the world time to adjust — assuming the world has the foresight.
“Looking at this long term,” says Birol, “it becomes clear that nothing changes whether oil runs out in 2030 or 2040 or 2050. One day, it will definitely be finished. We should prepare for that day with research and development, how we can replace oil, what kinds of living standards we will be able to maintain, what alternatives we can develop."
Last November, Birol said he’d experienced an “earthquake” in his thinking about supply and demand, owing to the growing demand for oil in China and India. His new comments are a whale of an aftershock.
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