Coronavirus has just prematurely thrown the world’s most valuable commodity over a cliff towards which it was anyway stumbling this decade. In 2019, oil demand breached 100m barrels a day for the first time: it may well be the last. Covid-19 has already ensured that 2020 demand will be much lower. Some inevitable post-Covid-19 bounce does not mean that oil demand will ever again reach triple figures. A previously unthinkable US-convened semi-cartel with Russia and OPEC could probably cause price spikes, but seems scarcely stable in the long run. The cost of the dramatic and strategically premature price collapse could still be high volatility, particularly if Middle East regimes fall or take to conflict in fiscal desperation. But we have already entered a new world, and there is no way back to the old.
Read the full article
Photo credit: Zbynek Burival, Unsplash
PhD studentship opportunity: Calculation of the Monetary ESGAP (M-ESGAP) indicator
PhD studentship opportunity available at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, exploring the ‘Calculation of the Monetary ESGAP (M-ESGAP) Indicator’.
15 Apr 2025
New Research Finds ‘Substantial’ Global Disparities in Covid-19 Vaccine Accessibility
The research, published in the British Medical Journal, showed major disparities between access to vaccines across 54 surveyed countries, with vaccine deserts in both high- and low-income regions.
15 Apr 2025
TERRITORIES OF CO-COGNITION Symposium
TERRITORIES OF CO-COGNITION is a half-day symposium curated by Bartlett academics, critically examining the intersections of artificial intelligence, ethics and the built environment.
14 Apr 2025