'Visibly failing' or 'remarkable progress'? John Kerry and Amin Nasser differ on energy's path forward

Saudi Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser earlier this week told CERAWeek by S&P Global conference delegates in Houston that the world’s energy transition plan is “visibly failing” and that the world should “abandon the fantasy” of phasing out oil and gas.

John Kerry, the former US secretary of state under Barack Obama and President Joe Biden’s former climate envoy, expressed an entirely different view on Thursday.

“Folks, we can win this battle. We can still win this battle,” said Kerry, at CERAWeek. “But not if we create a false analysis of where we are, like saying we failed. We haven’t failed.”

Kerry, a longtime advocate for climate-friendly policies, said the world is making “remarkable progress” on the energy transition.

The world knows the technologies it needs to deploy at scale to make the shift toward clean sources, he said.

The key is finding the trillions of dollars in capital needed to bring these to life. Kerry said he chose to move to the private sector to find those funds.

“No nation in the world has enough money to be able to affect this transition,” Kerry said. “No nation alone can make it happen, which is why the diplomacy of the planet is so important.”

Kerry advocated for a greater scaling of nuclear power alongside renewable energy, as well as creating incentives to kick start supply chains to source critical minerals for electric vehicles.

He said he has “reservations” about carbon capture — a technology that has widespread support among oil and gas executives at CERAWeek, including Nasser — “but we have to pursue it” to remove enough carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

He also called for breaking the “crazy gridlock of permitting,” echoing a concern raised by many energy executives at CERAWeek.

Analyses from the International Energy Agency show that if the world fulfils its current clean energy promises, the global temperature may only rise by 1.8 degrees Celsius by 2050, Kerry said.

“I am genuinely optimistic,” Kerry said. “I really am, because I love what we are capable of doing in the western world at large.”