Ministers say EU should stop investing in Oil, Gas and Coal

The European Union should halt funding of oil, gas and coal projects, EU finance ministers said, potentially cutting €2bn (£1.7bn) of yearly investments.
The finance ministers called upon the European Investment Bank (EIB), the EU's financing department, to cut its funding.
Previously, they had only called for coal projects to be dropped.
Since 2013, the EIB has funded €13.4bn of fossil fuel projects.
Last year it funded about €2bn worth of projects.
Some gas projects may be excused after Hungary suggested that Croatia and Ukraine might otherwise rely on Russia, Reuters reports, citing confidential documents.
Gas projects are relatively common among EU member states as they are seen as a cleaner alternative to coal and oil, and more reliable than renewable sources during winter.
Board decision

The joint statement from ministers requested that the EIB and other international financing organisations like the World Bank should "phase out financing of fossil fuel projects, in particular those using solid fossil fuels, taking into account the sustainable development, and energy needs, including energy security, of partner countries".
Protests against fossil fuels have intensified in recent years, and activists who are members of the Extinction Rebellion group are demanding governments declare a climate emergency and want the UK to commit to reducing carbon emissions to net zero by 2025.
Internationally, Extinction Rebellion estimates an additional 400 of its activists have been arrested since 31 October 2018, including about 70 in New York City.
The finance minsters' request will need to be agreed by the EIB board, which meets on 14 November.

Whilst this delightful show of 'wokefullness' is very sweet and all that it does seem to be surprisingly ignorant and shortsighted. I mean oil and gas, if not coal, are of pivotal importance to the countries of Europe and their energy security (never mind the basics such as making medicines, running cars, power etc.).
To be frank this comes across as little more than a fit of moral outrage by mentally deficient politicians, or.. politicians doing little more than pandering to the yobos of XR.


https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50350535

No, its shortsighted to turn the planet you have to live on into a "hothouse earth".

They aren't wrong, the more we can run on electricity and generate clean power the less reliant we will become on the Middle East and other less savoury oil producers.

Obviously we are decades away from total self reliance but we have to start somewhere.

The problem being we will always be reliant on said producers, energy is just one of the moreself evident uses but considering oil is one of the foundations of modern medicine, well.

The problem being we will always be reliant on said producers, energy is just one of the moreself evident uses but considering oil is one of the foundations of modern medicine, well.

Nah.

Erm yeah actually.

One way or another, we have to wean off being reliant on fossil fuels, or climate change will find a way of cutting us off anyway. We can argue about exactly when we have to wean off by, and how much longer avoiding it is safe, but at some point we do.

Erm Nah.

We can wean off of it to a point but the fact remains we will need fossil fuels for the next century at the absolute minimum.
A) we have no viable alternate for cheap energy a present, renewables are after all fickle and still in no position to replace gas and oil
B) As i have said, oil is absolutely essential in many things other than simply setting on fire to make electricity. Be it plastics (an essential part of our lives - i imagine your computer is made from them...), medicines, chemicals, fuel for transport etc.
The fact is that without completely upending global society fossil fuels will retain a salient importance for decades//centuries to come and nothing is going to change that.
I say this as someone who believes fully in the threat of climate change but also as someone who is a realist. I for one am not going to agree to the preposterous abolition of petroleum products which are critical not only to our way of life but to our very health i'm afraid and the bulk of society would agree with that...

If we're still using them for the next century then we're basically doomed tbh. In any case I think it's less a case of we're technically unable to do it and more a case of there being no political will to do it tbh.