The abrupt shift to green energy will make society "pay a heavy price," Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods told CNBC.

Society Will Pay Dearly for a Sharp Transition to Green Energy, Head of Exxon Mobil Warns

The abrupt shift to green energy will make society “pay a heavy price,” Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods told CNBC.

Woods warned governments against policies that fail to balance the current demand for affordable energy with the need to reduce emissions.

In his opinion, insufficient investment in the oil and gas industry correlates with higher prices, calling for a carbon price to create a market incentive to reduce emissions.

The head of Exxon Mobil said that in addition to the impact on families that depend on affordable energy, rising oil and gas prices have already pushed governments in Europe to use other fossil fuels such as coal rather than renewable energy.

As Exxon Mobil transitions to green energy, Woods emphasized his commitment to balancing the current demand for affordable energy with “the needs of the future, namely reducing emissions.”

On June 18, Rosneft Director Igor Sechin, speaking with a report “The New World Energy Market: A Crusade Against Russian Oil, and Where is Noah’s Ark?” at the energy panel as part of the SPIEF-2022, said that the anti-Russian sanctions of the West have done away with the “green transition“, the residual “green rhetoric” completely contradicts the real practice aimed at finding any sources of hydrocarbons at any cost, instead of Russian ones.