The vast resources of underground coal, crude oil, and natural gas are all useless unless refined or processed into the fuels and products that support the lives of 8 billion people. Refineries, coal gasification, and coal liquefaction plants—though emission generators—remain indispensable to modern civilization.
Adding to this, a ban on new drilling licenses and stricter environmental guidelines require projects to account for downstream emissions, effectively making many ventures unviable.
These rules, issued in June 2025, weigh economic benefits against climate impacts, often tipping the scales against fossil fuels.
In less than a few centuries, human ingenuity discovered more than 250 groundbreaking refining and processing techniques to convert those useless underground hydrocarbon resources of coal, crude oil, and natural gas into something useful for humanity. Today, more than 6,000 products and transportation fuels are derived from oil—plastics and synthetic rubber, fertilizers for agriculture, detergents, paints, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and a wide range of fuels such as LPG, gasoline, kerosene, diesel, lubricants, and asphalt for roads. Nearly half of the world’s population depends on synthetic fertilizers made from fossil fuels.
These materials and fuels are the foundation of longer, healthier lives. In 1900, the average life expectancy was 32 years; by 2021, it had more than doubled to 71 years. Today, it exceeds 75 years. Global transportation, commerce, and even space programs are built upon products refined from oil. Every day, more than 50,000 merchant ships, 20,000 commercial aircraft, and 50,000 military aircraft move people and goods around the world, all built with and fueled by derivatives of petroleum.
Yet, while demand for these essential products continues, building the facilities needed to produce them has become increasingly difficult in developed nations. In the United States, no new refinery has been built in decades, and several existing facilities are shutting down. Environmental regulations, political resistance, and “not in my backyard” opposition make it nearly impossible to permit new projects.
Asia, by contrast, is moving forward. As of 2021, there were 88 new refinery facilities in planning or under construction, especially in China and India. Developing nations are expected to host most of the new refining capacity needed by 2030. Without these additions, the supply chain of fuels and products will face severe imbalance, leading to higher costs and shortages for future generations.
Turning Point: Why “Net Zero” Becomes Destructive
The ideology of “net-zero emissions,” while politically appealing, is in practice destructive to future generations. By discouraging the construction of new refineries and processing facilities in developed countries, it undermines the very foundations of the supply chain that delivers essential fuels and products to society. If this trajectory continues, the outcome will not be a cleaner or safer world, but rather one marked by shortages, rising costs, and declining living standards for billions of people.
Do we simply allow such a dark and uncertain future to be passed on to our children and grandchildren? Surely not. To avoid this destructive path, the present generation must embrace a different way of thinking—a paradigm shift. Instead of pursuing the illusion of “zero” at any cost, we must recognize carbon as a resource to be used wisely, cleanly, and efficiently. The outlines of that paradigm are introduced below.
However, this future need not be framed only in terms of decline and scarcity. Advanced technologies already demonstrate that fossil resources can be used far more cleanly and efficiently. Japan’s USC (Ultra-Supercritical) coal-fired power plant in Isogo demonstrates that even coal can be utilized with remarkably low emissions. In addition, Japan has also introduced Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plants, another advanced technology achieving high efficiency with significantly lower emissions compared to conventional coal power. These high-efficiency, low-emission (HELE) approaches prove that innovation can dramatically reduce the environmental footprint of existing fuels.
If CO₂ is not demonized as the enemy of humanity, then high-cost “green hydrogen” is not the only path—hydrogen derived from fossil fuels can continue to support industry and society. Moreover, CO₂ itself, when combined with hydrogen and catalysts, can be a feedstock for producing useful chemicals and synthetic fuels.
The essential task is not to chase the illusion of “zero” but to cultivate wiser use of what we have: minimizing waste, reusing resources wherever possible, and sustaining ongoing exploration of new technologies. Just as ammonia synthesis has remained fundamentally unchanged for over a century, genuine breakthroughs often come not from incremental tweaks but from paradigm-shifting advances—potentially including next-generation nuclear energy, which could transform both electricity generation and industrial processes.
This 4-billion-year-old planet still holds vast reserves of crude oil and coal. What humanity needs is the courage to use them responsibly, while continuing to innovate for cleaner and more efficient processes. The future will not be secured by banning carbon, but by learning to live with it wisely.
The challenge before us is not to eliminate emissions at any cost, but to build a civilization that thrives by weaving prosperity together with carbon, rather than apart from it.
Notes for Readers:
Our material prosperity and longevity have been built on the ability to refine and process underground hydrocarbons of coal, crude oil, and natural gas, into usable forms. Net-zero ideologies ignore this fundamental truth and, by doing so, risk leaving future generations with scarcity and instability. A wiser path lies in balancing environmental stewardship with technological innovation—embracing efficiency, recycling, and breakthrough solutions while rejecting the illusion that carbon itself is the enemy.
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