Global demand for renewables up 4.5 pct per year by 2040: ExxonMobil

Global demand for renewables will increase by 4.5 percent annually by 2040, while that for oil will decline slightly annually, an ExxonMobile report said Friday.

The global demand for oil and coal would decrease about 0.4 percent and 2.4 percent per year, perspectively, while natural gas demand would increase about 0.9 percent per year, said the report "Energy & Carbon Summary: Positioning for a Lower-Carbon Future and its Outlook for Energy: A View to 2040."

The global scenarios assessed by ExxonMobil, which include a full range of energy technologies, contemplate limiting global greenhouse gas emissions to have a likely chance of holding atmospheric concentrations to the equivalent of 450 parts per million CO2 in 2100.

The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation, which the United States pulled out of last June under President Donald Trump, aims to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius, above pre-industrial levels by 2100.

ExxonMobil's report, a non-binding annual climate report which was a result of a shareholders vote last year after years of pressure from environmentalists and investors, describes a rapidly growing global population and rise in living standards in developing countries that will drive a demand in worldwide energy of about 25 percent from 2016 to 2040.

At the same time, energy efficiency gains and gradual reductions in the greenhouse gas intensity of the energy system will help to moderate energy use and reduce by nearly 45 percent the carbon intensity of the global economy.

"Our job is to supply the energy the world needs in an environmentally responsible way," said Darren Woods, ExxonMobil chairman and CEO. "Since 2000, out investments to develop lower-emission energy solutions have totaled about 8 billion U.S. dollars."

ExxonMobil, the largest publicly traded international oil and gas company headquartered in Texas, is one of the largest refiners and marketers of petroleum products and its chemical company is also one of the largest in the world.