The report said demand is up. In a normal economy investments would be made to increase production. However, increasing refinery capacity takes a lot of capital. Capital markets cannot justify investing in fossil fuel projects unless they are based on short term returns, like say 30% return per year for 5 years. Long term fossil fuel investments are being passed up because of the promised carbon free future. Problematically, investment in green energy is also way off the pace, because nobody can figure out how to make money offering a far more expensive product than the fossil fuels. It’s a real catch 22. Projects like refinery additions and large scale green energy take years, or tens of years to plan, finance and implement. Today’s investment patterns may have already guaranteed a global energy crisis in 2035. The silver lining is that the widespread economic collapse will result in decreased CO2 emissions.
