Government support for biofuels, electric and natural-gas powered vehicles, and increased fuel economy were all introduced to support climate change goals as much as energy security. Climate change will give energy efficiency policies much more stickiness than in the 1980s and 1990s.
In that sense, OPEC may face a bigger challenge in using low prices to buy back some of the demand growth lost in recent years. The rapid modernization of developing economies will work in the cartel’s favor, but climate change policy works against it, as OPEC tries to rebalance the market.