There were a few news stories circulating about a IEA report issued yesterday in Paris (obviously, in one of the more peaceful parts of Paris!).

Although, at times, there was the usual ‘everything is going to be OK’ message, so not to worry the stock market too much… there were some more interesting snippets, that the IEA wouldn’t normally talk about. Is this the start of a shift in Policy?

The BBC report headlined from an environmental point of view, but really the content was all about how current energy usage is not sustainable. This was also reported over at Reuters.

“These projected trends have important implications and lead to a future that is not sustainable,” said IEA chief Claude Mandil.
“We must change these outcomes and get the planet onto a sustainable energy path.”

The FT also reported on this story, with an extra little snippet that wasn’t really acknowledged elsewhere.

Complicating matters is the ending of the era of large oilfields. The IEA predicted that by 2015 production at the world’s largest onshore oil field – Saudi Arabia’s Ghawar field – will have peaked. Instead of being able to rely on such fields for most of its oil, the world will become dependent on smaller Middle East fields.

Although some people would point out that the IEA dates are a little optimistic, it’s good to see that are talking about some scenarios.

Meanwhile, Chris over at VitalTrivia has reported on this.