Our Approach
to Fossil Fuels
RMI is working to immediately reduce greenhouse gas pollution across the entire life cycle of fossil fuels, even as we simultaneously scale clean energy.
Related: Explore how RMI works across the fossil fuels value chain to rapidly reduce emissions.
RMI transforms global energy systems through market-driven solutions to secure a prosperous, resilient, clean energy future for all.
A quarter century ago, Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, the former Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia, said, “The Stone Age came to an end not for a lack of stones, and the Oil Age will end, but not for a lack of oil.”
Pursuing the phase-out of fossil fuels is the only currently viable pathway to reduce energy waste, boost national security, and enhance resiliency, while also creating economic opportunity and delivering affordable energy for all. Technologies and innovations exist today that are rapidly making fossil fuels uneconomic and speeding their obsolescence.
In nearly every sector, energy efficiency and renewable energy offer modern, scalable, cost-effective, and equitable opportunities that are already accelerating rapidly. For some sectors, other viable substitutes to fossil fuels are fast emerging — such as low-emissions hydrogen for heavy industry and transportation.
The Stone Age came to an end not for a lack of stones, and the Oil Age will end, but not for a lack of oil.
RMI is both conscious of the scale of the disruption underway and pragmatic about the market and political challenges the world faces during the transition. RMI uses fact-based economic research and analysis to champion market innovations as we develop and scale solutions to mitigate the negative impacts of legacy systems.
That’s why we are working to reduce methane leaks in oil and gas production. Leaks from pipes, wells, and other infrastructure make methane gas dirtier than coal and forfeit the economic value of the lost fuel. Hence, stopping methane leaks now is the quickest and most cost-effective way to slow climate change.
RMI also recognizes that carbon removal will be required in the long term to reduce the pollution already in the atmosphere, but neither carbon removal nor point source carbon capture should be used to prolong the burning of fossil fuels where economic clean-energy alternatives exist.
In emerging economies such as Africa and Asia where energy is in short supply, we work with a wide range of energy stakeholders to identify practical solutions. We respect the fundamental right of communities and countries to develop their own natural resources to contribute to their economic prosperity, human development, and security.
Ensuring that clean energy benefits developing and emerging economies is critical for the energy transition. And in most cases, non-fossil options are cheaper, more accessible, and more resilient in spurring local economic growth and improving lives.
To achieve our mission, RMI works openly with all entities interested in accelerating the transition, including governments around the world, policymakers of any party, nonprofit and community-based organizations, as well as corporations, among them fossil fuel companies that are committed to clean energy.