The fossil fuel industry is facing the risk as worldwide commitment to reduce greenhouse gasses has increased. The awareness and commitment to climate change have potentially relinquished the revenues in the industry.
Citicorp estimated that the commitment to reduce greenhouse gasses emissions will forgo the $100 trillion in fossil fuel revenues by 2050 as reported by Phys.org. This is a very big disturbance to the economies of the world's resource-exporting countries, as coal, oil and natural gas are responsible for providing the 20% of GDP for two dozen countries. However, the commercial activity of fossil fuel industry is also responsible for the two-third of greenhouse gasses emissions into the atmosphere.
Fossil fuel industry faces the dilemma to deal with the increased commitment of climate change globally, as the sustainability energy has become the focus of the future energy. Oil companies are required to spend billions of dollars of investment to cope with the challenge of clean energy. In March, the world's largest oil producer Exxon Mobil has pledged to invest $20 billion through 2022 to improve its chemical and oil refinery plants in the U.S. Gulf Coast.
According to Reuters, the investment will improve 11 refinery sites and will create 12,000 permanent jobs and 35,000 temporary construction jobs. The oil industry has the least climate risk in the fossil fuel industry, compared to coal and natural gas. The coal industry has to abandon 82 percent of its reserves and 50 percent for the coal industry, while oil industry only has to abandon around 30 percent of the reserves.
Coal industry suffers the worst impact of the global climate commitment in the fossil fuel industry. In the U.S. alone, according to research from Jim Krane from Wallace S. Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies at Rice University in Houston, since 2010. coal companies have lost 31,000 jobs and $30 billion in share value as the commitment for climate change has increased. Watch the report from National Geographic regarding the climate change issue below:
