https://www.scmp.com/rss/329745/feed Tilak K. Doshi is an energy consultant, and author of "Singapore in a Post-Kyoto World: Energy, Environment and the Economy" en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Few would disagree with former US vice-president Mike Pence’s view that President Joe Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan “is a foreign-policy humiliation unlike anything our country has endured since the Iran hostage crisis”. In his memoir, Robert Gates, who served as defence secretary for the Obama administration, famously wrote that Biden “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades”. It would seem that the disaster in... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/united-states/article/3146648/bidens-oil-and-gas-policy-makes-about-much-sense-his?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/united-states/article/3146648/bidens-oil-and-gas-policy-makes-about-much-sense-his?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 Aug 2021 13:15:21 +0000 BP released its annual Statistical Review of World Energy last week, with updated data for 2020. As usual, the oil giant’s influential report card on energy use was accompanied by widespread media coverage. The lead stories in news wires and major newspapers focused on two welcome aspects: how the Covid-19 pandemic drastically reduced energy demand (and hence carbon emissions) last year; and how rapidly solar and wind energy capacity grew. However, the extensive coverage was lacking when it came... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3141197/climate-change-wests-energy-transition-narrative-ignores-reality?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3141197/climate-change-wests-energy-transition-narrative-ignores-reality?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 15 Jul 2021 19:30:08 +0000 In mid-May, the International Energy Agency – the rich world’s pre-eminent adviser on energy affairs – issued a bombshell report calling for an immediate end to all new investments in the global oil and gas sector, so the world could reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. A few days later, the Group of 7 confirmed its support for the net zero goal, “by 2050 at the latest”. Yet, less than a month later, the IEA bafflingly called on OPEC+ countries to increase oil output to avoid an upward price... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3139193/us-and-europe-push-climate-policies-middle-east-and-russian-state?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3139193/us-and-europe-push-climate-policies-middle-east-and-russian-state?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 30 Jun 2021 17:30:17 +0000 As US President Joe Biden assumed office in January, the long-settled geopolitical presumption of the Middle East order – that Arab states would never normalise relations with Israel without a resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict – had already been jettisoned in a strategic realignment of the Gulf states with Israel and against Iran. The announcement of the United Arab Emirates’ agreement to establish full relations with Israel in August 2020, followed by Bahrain’s announcement of a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3134881/can-abraham-accords-hold-after-israeli-palestinian-ceasefire?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3134881/can-abraham-accords-hold-after-israeli-palestinian-ceasefire?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 26 May 2021 19:30:08 +0000 Any hope that US President Joe Biden would tack back to the centre on energy policy and seek an orderly, long-term transition away from oil and gas evaporated after the slew of executive orders issued on his first day after taking the oath of office. The United States rejoined the Paris climate agreement and revoked the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, which is capable of moving 830,000 barrels of heavy crude per day from the Alberta oil sands to the US Gulf coast refineries. Biden also... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3119311/what-joe-bidens-policies-climate-change-and-iran-mean-oil-producers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3119311/what-joe-bidens-policies-climate-change-and-iran-mean-oil-producers?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 Jan 2021 14:30:16 +0000 As President-elect Joe Biden prepares to enter the White House, one might presume that the campaign rhetoric of the Democratic Party will be pared back as the real costs of some of the more radical proposals become apparent. Most observers would contend, however, that the odds are low that a “tack back to the centre” (à la former president Bill Clinton) will happen. The Middle East is at a crossroads, and Biden’s policy choices will be critical in the outlook for the region’s oil and gas... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3110841/fate-middle-east-oil-producers-turns-bidens-actions-climate-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3110841/fate-middle-east-oil-producers-turns-bidens-actions-climate-and?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Nov 2020 14:00:18 +0000 Last month marked 50 years since Milton Friedman published in The New York Times Magazine his epochal essay “The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits” – making clear his idea that “the business of business is business”. But there is little cause to celebrate his defence of shareholder capitalism. In a repudiation, the influential US Business Roundtable adopted in August last year a new “statement on the purpose of a corporation”, signed by 181 CEOs “who commit to lead... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3108898/irony-sages-west-offering-stakeholder-capitalism-asia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3108898/irony-sages-west-offering-stakeholder-capitalism-asia?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 08 Nov 2020 14:30:09 +0000 The news these days for Middle East oil producers appears to be all bad. The coronavirus pandemic and collapse in global energy demand in the first quarter of 2020 led to plunging oil prices. Despite April’s historic OPEC+ deal to slash output by an unprecedented 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd), oil prices have been stuck around US$40 per barrel since June. Prospects for an economic recovery for the Middle East already looked precarious after the fall in oil prices in mid-2014 as the US “shale... https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3103599/western-desire-green-energy-will-not-doom-oil-and-gas-industry?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3103599/western-desire-green-energy-will-not-doom-oil-and-gas-industry?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 30 Sep 2020 14:30:09 +0000 The current oil price war unfolded with startling speed once the Opec+ talks broke down last week. The trigger was Russia’s refusal to abide by an essentially Saudi-led proposal for Opec to cut crude oil production by 1.5 million barrels per day (b/d). Non-members of the organisation, of which Russia is the largest producer by far, would collectively have contributed 0.5 million b/d to this total. A day after the Russian refusal, Saudi Aramco announced monthly Official Selling Prices (OSPs) of... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3074923/never-mind-punishing-us-russia-and-saudi-arabias-oil-price-war?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3074923/never-mind-punishing-us-russia-and-saudi-arabias-oil-price-war?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Mar 2020 17:00:08 +0000 Adam Smith famously said that “I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.” Nowhere is the merit of the great sage’s insight more evident than in the veritable parade of banks that have rushed to end the financing of new coal power plants. The reasoning among banks follows the familiar corporate social responsibility (CSR) route. CSR initiatives by banks call for investment or loan decisions based not on risks and rewards in a competitive market, but on... https://www.scmp.com/business/commodities/article/2176876/what-would-adam-smith-say-about-rush-banks-stop-funding-coal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/commodities/article/2176876/what-would-adam-smith-say-about-rush-banks-stop-funding-coal?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 09 Dec 2018 02:00:45 +0000