(Adds additional quotes, recasts throughout)
By Ron Bousso and Jessica Resnick-Ault
NEW YORK, March 1 (Reuters) - Global energy leaders and
other luminaries like incoming Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy
focused on the tough road to transforming world economies to a
lower-carbon future at the kickoff of the world's largest energy
conference on Monday.
Numerous speakers at CERAWeek were prepared to talk about
the energy transition and the need for future investment in
renewables. But many oil and gas executives were vocal about the
need for more fossil-fuel investment in coming years, even as a
way of leading the world to a lower-carbon future.
“One of the most urgent things we can do to combat global
warming is to back carbon-emitting companies that are committed
to get to net zero,” said Bernard Looney, CEO of BP Plc,
one of several European oil majors to have committed to
ambitious targets of cutting emissions to reach net zero carbon
by 2050.
CERAWeek was canceled last year due to the coronavirus
pandemic, which stopped billions of people from traveling and
wiped out one-fifth of worldwide demand for fuel.
The U.S. fossil fuel industry is still reeling after tens of
thousands of jobs were lost. The pandemic has instead
accelerated the transition to renewable fuels and
electrification of key elements of energy use. Global majors
have been playing catch-up, responding to demands from investors
to lower production of fuels that contribute to global warming.
The primary message on Monday, however, was that achieving
net zero - where polluting emissions are offset by technologies
that absorb carbon dioxide for the atmosphere - is going to be
difficult.
"There just isn't yet enough renewable energy to fuel all of
the energy that people need. That's in developed countries,"
said Andy Jassy, head of Amazon.com Inc’s cloud
division who will succeed Jeff Bezos as CEO this summer.
He said the company had announced its goal for net zero
emissions at a time when it had not entirely figured out how to
get there.
Since the 2019 conference, many of the world's major oil
companies have set ambitious goals to shift new investments to
technologies that will reduce carbon emissions to slow global
warming. BP has largely jettisoned its oil exploration team;
U.S. auto giant General Motors Co announced plans to stop
making gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles in 15 years.
Oil companies have come under increasing pressure from
shareholders, governments and activists to show how they are
changing their businesses from fossil fuels toward renewables,
and to accelerate that transition. However, numerous speakers
warned that the viability of certain technologies, such as
hydrogen, remains far in the future.
Hydrogen “is a very small business at this point in time, it
will scale up, and it will take a long time before it is a
business that is large enough to start making a real difference
on sort of planetary scale," said Royal Dutch Shell CEO
Ben van Beurden.
Other speakers expected to appear include several
representatives from national oil companies along with CEOs of
Exxon Mobil, Total, Chevron and
Occidental Petroleum, though many are participating in
panels focusing on the energy transition.
Mohammed Barkindo, secretary general of the Organization of
the Petroleum Exporting Countries, was scheduled to appear, but
backed out, citing a conflict.
Some CEOs said more oil and gas investment was necessary.
"We don't think peak oil is around the corner - we see oil
demand growing for the next 10 years," said John Hess, CEO of
Hess Corp. "We're not investing enough to grow oil and
gas in the future," he said, explaining that prices would need
to rise to support that investment.
(Reporting By Ron Bousso, Jessica Resnick-Ault and Marianna
Parraga; additional reporting by Valerie Volcovici, Stephanie
Kelly, Jeffrey Dastin and Gary McWilliams; writing by David
Gaffen; Editing by Marguerita Choy)