For Michael Wirth, the case is clear: In their enthusiasm for climate protection and renewable energies, the governments of Western countries have lost sight of reality for years, said the head of the American oil company Chevron recently.

"The debate in the industrialized world was skewed towards climate," explained Wirth in the "Financial Times".

Energy affordability and security of supply, on the other hand, were erroneously taken for granted.

A grave mistake, says Wirth: “The reality is that fossil fuels keep the world running.

Today, tomorrow, in five years, ten years and in 20 years.”

Marcus Theurer

Editor in the economy of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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Since this weekend, the politicians scolded by the oil manager have been meeting in the Egyptian sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh at the 27th edition of the UN climate conference.

The government representatives want to spend two weeks discussing how the increasingly threatening global warming can be curbed.

At least one thing is already clear: the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the resulting energy crisis have put international climate policy on the defensive.

There are other priorities now.

Even if hardly any politicians say it openly: oil, gas and coal celebrated their big comeback in 2022.

The climate-damaging fossil fuels are more in demand, scarce and expensive than they have been for a long time.

Above all, however, the energy crisis has made it abundantly clear that they are still essential.

80 percent of the world's energy needs are still covered by oil, gas and coal.

"Now Increase Oil Production"

“Increase oil production now,” urges US President Joe Biden to American oil companies.

Congressional elections are due this Tuesday in the USA, and the high fuel prices are a hot topic in the campaign.

Pumping more oil and gas out of the ground is good for climate protection, claimed Jamie Dimon, head of the US bank JP Morgan and one of the most powerful financial managers in the world.

After all, that's still better than burning more coal.

In Germany, the debate last year revolved around how oil and gas in transport and heating should be made more expensive through CO2 prices in order to set financial incentives for climate protection.

In the energy crisis year 2022, on the other hand, the government released billions for a temporary "tank discount".

In the first nine months of the year, fuel consumption in Germany increased by 4 percent.

Now the gas price is to be subsidized across the board.

Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his Green Economics Minister Robert Habeck are currently on the road buying fossil fuels.

They are jetting around the world to organize new shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for Germany in the Middle East, Africa and North America to replace pipeline gas from Russia.

Probably the most important supplier country will be the USA.

16 new port terminals for the export of LNG have been approved there or are already under construction, twice as many as are currently in operation on the US coasts - this is also a sign of the comeback of fossil fuels.

Once completed, these additional facilities will be in use for many years, and LNG's carbon footprint is significantly worse than pipeline gas.

It was less than a year and a half ago that the International Energy Agency (IEA) made the headlines with a surprising appeal for climate protection: Energy experts from Paris demanded that no more money should be invested in the development of new oil, gas and coal deposits with immediate effect.

Today, the IEA call from May 2021 looks like it is from another era.

JP Morgan boss Dimon makes it clear that his bank is not even thinking of stopping the financing of new oil and gas projects: "That would be the road to hell for America."

In Germany, the way was cleared in the summer for the long-controversial further natural gas production off the East Frisian coast.

The energy analysts at the US investment bank Goldman Sachs expect the number of large new oil and gas projects worldwide to triple in the next five years that the world needs to mobilize more money for a secure and affordable energy supply.