Fossil fuel supply and climate policy: exploring the road less taken

As the world struggles to meet the Paris climate mitigation commitments, attention is increasingly turning to the political and economic interests and institutions that underpin fossil fuel production, and their role in perpetuating and even increasing fossil fuel use.

Policymakers, investors, researchers, and civil society actors have begun to look in earnest at the supply side of the fossil fuel economy—and the potential for supply-side measures to complement demand-side climate policies.

This article examples some of the practical, political and ethical issues involved.

This is the introductory article in a special issue of Climatic Change on ‘Fossil Fuel Supply and Climate Policy’, edited by the authors.