How will the oil price plunge impact renewable energy?

SINGAPORE (April 9): Burning more fossil fuel hurts the environment, but with crude oil prices staying way below the historical peak, the lure of basic economics has stymied the pace in which renewable energy is used as an alternative.

Over the years, greater environmental consciousness has taken root, especially among the younger generation, forming — eventually — sufficient momentum for some semblance of a global call to action in the form of the 2016 Paris Agreement.

Ratified by 196 countries, the agreement aims to keep the global temperature rise this century to “well below” 2°C above pre-industrial levels. It also aims to pursue “efforts” to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 °C and to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change.