Good morning.
Fortune’s first Impact Initiative got underway in Atlanta yesterday, bringing together top executives responsible for ESG from many of the world’s largest corporations. My task for the day was to conduct an odd trio of interviews on the conference stage, with billionaire basketball team owner Tony Ressler, rapper “Killer Mike” Render, and Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub. All three were fascinating, but since I have limited space here, I’ll focus this morning on Hollub, who by speaking her mind has managed to anger both sides in the climate debate. Environmentalists don’t like her because she believes oil production will have to be part of the global energy picture for decades to come. Here’s what she said on that yesterday:
“A lot of models are showing that even by 2040, if you tried to do your best in terms of building renewables and other alternatives, the demand for oil would still be around 60 to 70 million barrels. We’re at 100 million today. Unfortunately, if you don't invest in the oil industry, by then the supply would be 27. So when we talk about a just transition, we have to remember that there are places around the world that have tremendous oil and gas resources. But if they can't develop those, they're the ones that will get left behind, and they're the ones that will suffer.”
