Nigerian Chairman of Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority Timipre Sylva attends the “Saudi Green Initiative” forum, in the capital Riyadh on October 23, 2021. Sylva made comments this week that his country should be left out of the global clean energy transition. Credit: Fayez Nureldine/AFP via Getty Images
Energy leaders from some developing countries in Africa and Asia, many of which have economies that heavily rely on fossil fuel extraction, are once again asking that their nations be left out of the push to transition the world to renewable energy. It’s a situation that raises questions over what a “just transition” should look like and whether wealthy countries, which are historically responsible for the majority of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, are pulling their fair share of weight in that effort.
At CERAWeek—the…