The Arab Spring and the possibility of a double-dip recession pose
significant risks to the world's ability to have secure energy supplies and
mitigate climate change, the chief economist of the International Energy Agency
said Friday.
Emissions of carbon dioxide are reaching new highs, but a recession would
hamper efforts to prevent climate change, Fatih Birol said at a press briefing
in
Budapest
. The
IEA said last month that if the world doesn't adopted significant new measures
to reduce CO2 emissions by 2017, dangerous climate change will be impossible to
prevent.
Birol also warned that the political turmoil of the Arab Spring poses a major
risk to oil production in the
Middle East
and
North
Africa
. There is a worrying concentration of remaining oil reserves in these
risky countries, he said.
Oil
prices are set to remain high, he said.