To Ward Off Climate Disaster, IEA Recommends Giving Extra Nudges to the Invisible Hand of the Market

November 28, 2023--Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Could a dramatic shift in government tax policies be used as a club to beat Oil and Gas companies into more actively and rapidly pursuing low- and no-carbon investments? Quadrupling or more the taxes on cigarettes has cut the U.S. rate of adult smoking in half since 2009, estimated the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (Atlanta, Georgia). Can't the same be done for oil and natural gas? Surely global climate change poses a more significant, even existential, threat to life on this planet compared to the public health dangers of cigarette smoking, could be the argument mounted by some who are extremely concerned about global climate change. Using tax policy in this blunt and punitive manner is not what the International Energy Agency (IEA) (Paris, France) has in mind. In a new report leading up to this year's U.N. Congress of Parties 28 (COP28) global climate conference, scheduled to begin November 30, the agency argues for a different, and more subtle, integrated use of tax and public policy to transform oil and gas markets. Companies feature: Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL)