{"id":384439,"date":"2025-06-23T17:52:25","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T15:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=384439"},"modified":"2025-06-23T17:52:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T15:52:27","slug":"decarbonization-myth-frays-as-hydrocarbon-use-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=384439","title":{"rendered":"Decarbonization Myth Frays as Hydrocarbon Use Grows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Vijay Jayaraj<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One cannot peruse the morning headlines or scroll through the digital ether without being assailed by the global media\u2019s solemn decree: Society is gracefully, unequivocally and inexorably decoupling from the deathly embrace of fossil fuels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many in the \u201cenlightened\u201d professional classes, forgoing independent scrutiny of the issue, regurgitate the declaration with the vigorous conviction of newly converted acolytes. What we have today is a digital amphitheater flooded with hashtags and half-truths, where perception cosplays as accomplishment and misinformation marches under the banner of inevitability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take China for example: Online posts about the country\u2019s undeniable dependence on coal is glossed over or misrepresented. Popular reporting has Beijing showing great interest in \u201cnet zero\u201d as evidenced by the installation of record amounts of solar and wind energy generators. Cherry-picked are the ebbs and flows of fossil fuel use and investments in \u201crenewable\u201d technology to argue that Chinese hydrocarbon use is waning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the energy sector in China cares little about these fantasies. Beijing began building 94.5 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-powered capacity in 2024, in addition to resuming 3.3 GW of suspended projects. This is the highest level<\/a> of construction in the past 10 years!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As recently as May, China deployed the world\u2019s largest fleet of driverless mining trucks to fast-track efficient operations, partially to overcome the challenging conditions of harsh winter weather at the Yimin coal mine in northeastern Inner Mongolia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, both China and India are pouring colossal sums into wind turbines and solar panels. Yet, let us not, for a moment, confuse this fervent activity with the zealous repudiation of fossil fuels seen in some European countries. The Asian nations are not renouncing fossil fuels but rather grabbing every<\/em> energy source as would hoarders before an expected crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at the Heartland International Conference in 2023, I dubbed this the \u201ctwin strategy\u201d \u2013  a clever diplomatic pas de deux \u2013 where Beijing and Delhi strike photogenic \u201cgreen\u201d poses for the Western press while quietly constructing new coal-fired plants and excavating and importing ever more fuel for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result? Applause from climate summiteers and megawatts from smokestacks \u2013 a brilliant balancing act of virtue signaling and strategic realism. The West calls it hypocrisy; China and India call it another day at the office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate doomsayers must advance a narrative of Asian complicity in the increasingly fraying \u201cgreen\u201d agenda to help keep alive the myth of a decarbonizing world, which for most sensible people has become about as believable as the Easter Bunny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India\u2019s target for achieving net zero is set for a distant 2070 \u2013 100 years after the first Earth Day, whose observance by then will be about as relevant as tossing virgins into volcanoes. More lasting will be the country\u2019s commitment to economic growth through the use of coal, oil and natural gas \u2013 a path to having the highest rate of increase in energy demand going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case is similar in dozens of other countries across Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, where new discoveries of energy reserves and an appetite for economic progress have the oil and gas industries booming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Approximately 120 oil and gas discoveries were made globally in 2024, with significant drilling expected in Suriname, Cyprus, Libya and South Africa. About 85% of these discoveries occurred in offshore regions, the bigger ones being in Kuwait and Namibia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rystad Energy predicts deepwater drilling to hit a 12-year high in 2026. Once the poster child of climate repentance, the British multinational oil and gas company BP is abandoning plans to reduce production in favor of drilling deeper in the Gulf of Mexico. Norway\u2019s Equinor announced early this year that \u201crenewables\u201d would take a back seat, as the country\u2019s offshore oil fields roar back to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The climate commentariat, already breathless from their creative contortions to recast reality, now finds itself rattled by President Trump\u2019s funding cuts that turned off the tap to the climate-industrial complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the digital battleground remains an arena for the ongoing tug-of-war between the realities of economics and physics and fanciful rhetoric about an energy transition. The growth in consumption of fossil fuels continues apace, nonetheless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This commentary was first published at BizPac Review<\/em><\/a> on June 20, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vijay Jayaraj<\/a> is a Science and Research Associate at the <\/em>CO\u2082 Coalition<\/em><\/a>, Fairfax, Virginia. He <\/em>holds an M.S. in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia and a postgraduate degree in energy management from Robert Gordon University, both in the U.K., and a bachelor\u2019s in engineering from Anna University, India.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One cannot peruse the morning headlines or scroll through the digital ether without being assailed by the global media\u2019s solemn decree: Society is gracefully, unequivocally and inexorably decoupling from the deathly embrace of fossil fuels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":384442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691833545,691818341,691818955,691819635,691835993,691818237,691818154,691819148,691818728],"class_list":{"0":"post-384439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-british-petroleum-bp","9":"tag-china","10":"tag-climate-doomsayers","11":"tag-coal","12":"tag-decarbonization-myth","13":"tag-india","14":"tag-net-zero","15":"tag-oil-and-gas","16":"tag-wind-and-solar","18":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ChatGPT-Image-17.-Juni-2025-09_22_59.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1C0D","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":291921,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=291921","url_meta":{"origin":384439,"position":0},"title":"How 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