The oil and gas industry is facing increasing demands to clarify the implications of energy transitions for their operations and business models, and to explain the contributions that they can make to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.

The increasing social and environmental pressures on many oil and gas companies raise complex questions about the role of these fuels in a changing energy economy, and the position of these companies in the societies in which they operate.

But the core question, against a backdrop of rising GHG emissions, is a relatively simple one: should today’s oil and gas companies be viewed only as part of the problem, or could they also be crucial in solving it?

This is the topic taken up by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in this report, which builds on a multi‑year programme of analysis on the future of oil and gas in the IEA World Energy Outlook (WEO) series.