A World's Thirst for Power: Why 'Addition' Might Be the Real Energy Transition We Need

For what feels like ages now, the conversation around our planet’s energy future has been, well, a little bit one-note, hasn’t it? It’s almost always framed as this grand "transition," a monumental shift away from the fossil fuels that built our modern world and straight into the waiting embrace of renewables. And yes, in many ways, that narrative holds true; we absolutely must decarbonize. But honestly, for once, maybe we've been looking at it all a bit too simplistically.

Consider the recent, rather profound, thoughts shared by Olivier Le Peuch, the CEO of SLB — formerly Schlumberger, you know, one of the giants in oilfield services. He posits, and I think he’s onto something truly vital here, that the world doesn’t just need an energy transition. No, it actually requires an energy addition. A subtle difference in words, perhaps, but a colossal one in philosophy and, crucially, in practice.

Why the semantic — or rather, strategic — pivot? Well, just look around. Global populations continue to burgeon. Developing economies, quite rightly, aspire to the same standards of living, the same access to power, that more industrialized nations have long enjoyed. They need energy, frankly, a lot of energy, to build schools, power hospitals, fuel nascent industries, and simply light homes. So, the demand curve isn't exactly flattening; if anything, it’s only climbing higher. To simply say, "let's switch what we have now" ignores this inconvenient truth: the total pie itself is getting bigger, and fast.

And this isn't, mind you, some thinly veiled excuse to pump more oil and gas with impunity. Far from it. The urgency of climate change, let’s be clear, remains an undeniable, existential threat. But Le Peuch’s perspective, it suggests a more pragmatic, dare I say, human pathway forward. It acknowledges that for a considerable period, we’re going to need both traditional energy sources — perhaps increasingly decarbonized through innovation like carbon capture — and a massive, unprecedented build-out of renewables: solar, wind, geothermal, hydrogen, you name it. It's a "both/and" scenario, not a stark "either/or."

Indeed, the infrastructure and reliability that fossil fuels currently provide are, for many parts of the world, non-negotiable for stability and growth. So, while we diligently construct wind farms and blanket deserts with solar panels, while we push forward with nascent technologies like green hydrogen, we also need to manage the existing energy backbone intelligently. It’s about leveraging every tool in our energy toolkit, isn’t it, rather than discarding half of them before the replacements are truly ready to shoulder the entire load?

The challenge, then, isn't merely about what energy we use, but how much we need and how we integrate the new with the old to ensure everyone, everywhere, has access to reliable, affordable, and increasingly cleaner power. This "energy addition" approach, it calls for immense innovation, yes, but also for a broader, more inclusive conversation that moves beyond rigid ideologies. Perhaps, just perhaps, this more expansive view is precisely what we need to genuinely power a sustainable, equitable future for all.