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Yesterday, the message from the world’s leading climate scientists was their most brutal and stark yet. It was unequivocal.

The UK House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee have launched a inquiry into Accelerating the transition from fossil fuels and securing energy supplies, which is scrutinising the UK Government’s Energy Security Strategy and its North Sea Transition Deal (for oil and gas production in the UK’s Continental Shelf). Oil Change International submitted the following evidence for the committee.

One of the leading trade associations promoting fracking in the U.S. sees Putin’s war in Ukraine as a flagrant opportunity to sell more LNG gas. And lots of it. They are calling on the U.S. to “unleash American energy’s strength and security”.

Increased recognition from governments, institutions, and even parts of the financial sector of the role of fossil fuels in climate change represents a sea change from where we were even just a few years ago. The importance of phasing out oil and gas are now featured in climate policy discussions across all sectors.

With parts of the Eastern US flooded and West burning, the Biden Administration has lost a court case, forcing it to open up 80 million acres for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

New research, published in Nature Climate Change, has found “an almost complete loss of stability over the last century” of the ocean currents known as AMOC or more commonly the Gulf Stream. The currents are already at their slowest point for 1,600 years. But scientists worry that AMOC could be reaching a tipping point, leading to a total collapse.

A draft report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states: "The worst is yet to come, affecting our children's and grandchildren's lives much more than our own." It reiterates that we have to act now to avoid runaway climate change.

A toolbox isn’t very helpful if even the best tool in it only gets you halfway to the repair you need to make. As the IEA prepares a special report on economic recovery, it must close its own climate credibility gap.

When it comes to the urgent need for a robust, central, 1.5°C-aligned energy scenario that doesn’t gamble our future on unproven technologies, the IEA unfortunately presents far more spin than substance.

Today’s release of the World Energy Outlook (WEO) 2018 marked another missed opportunity for the International Energy Agency (IEA) to provide a roadmap to Paris success.