Should countries fire sell their oil & gas assets? Addressing the misconceptions surrounding the continued role of fossil fuels in the energy transition era

Access to modern energy such as electricity is key in the economic
development of any country, and yet over 600 million people remain
with no access to electricity in developing countries. It is true that both
renewable energy and fossil fuels are key in the achievement of the
United Nations Sustainable Development (UN SDG) Goal 7 and Goal
1 on energy access and poverty eradication respectively. However, the
current global efforts to transition to a low carbon economy, and tackle
climate change as stipulated in the SDG 13 and the 2015 Paris
Agreement, have created a lot of tension on fossil fuel developments in
recent years.
This commentary article is presented as a question and answer session
aimed at addressing the misconceptions surrounding the achievement of
SDG 7 and SDG 13 in this energy transition era. The paper is of interest
to oil producing countries. The article follows the various questions
raised by policymakers during an online seminar delivered by both the
authors entitled, ‘Fossil Fuels in the Energy Transition Era’.