Just how green is the auto industry’s electric revolution?
Fossil Fuels
![Global benchmark crude is trading near its highest level in two and a half years as fuel consumption roars back in the US and China with the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions [File: Maya Sidiqqi/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/373811299.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
OPEC’s latest oil demand outlook fits with a yet-to-be-ratified plan with its allies to boost crude supplies.
![Crude prices have recently soared to their highest levels in two and a half years as economies around the globe - especially more developed ones- cast-off COVID-19 restrictions, boosting demand for energy [File: Nick Oxford/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/energy.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
OPEC+ talks were abandoned earlier this month over a dispute that pivoted on UAE production quotas.
![The United Nations and its member states pledged to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals back in 2015, but while the coronavirus upended that plan, it also offers an opportunity to move closer to a greener world, the head of the United Nations Development Programme tells Al Jazeera this week [File: Mike Segar/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/UN.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
THE WEEK IN NUMBERS
The toll of anti-LGBTQ laws, UN SDGs, and Turkey’s wealth amnesty
We round up the numbers from the week’s key economic stories to keep you in the know.
!['I envision a future when our country will be transformed from a large importer of fossil energy to a large exporter of clean solar energy solutions,' Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd, said on Thursday [File: Pankaj Nangia/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/230914200.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Indian mogul and fossil-fuel billionaire unveiled a plan to invest $10.1bn over three years in green energy.
![Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme Achim Steiner says the Achilles heel of the global economic recovery is the growing number of countries facing coronavirus vaccine disparity and debt distress [File: Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/achim.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Al Jazeera sits down with the UNDP chief who says helping developing countries is in wealthier nations’ self-interest.
![The lack of investment is 'going to exacerbate supply and demand tightness as the economies pick back up again, and then in time we’ll see supply pick up and rebalance,' Exxon Mobil Corp. CEO Darren Woods said at the Qatar Economic Forum Tuesday [File: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/328864612.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
CEOs, speaking at the Qatar Economic Forum, said lack of investment will curtail future crude supplies.
![Gold this week tumbled to its lowest price since early May after the United States Federal Reserve indicated monetary policy tightening could start earlier than expected [File: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/363631336.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Economic reopenings have driven a commodities price surge this year, but the last two weeks have seen prices slump.
![China’s financing of overseas energy projects has declined and some of its decisions have run into opposition in recent years, including in 2020, when more than 20 NGOs called on Chinese banks to withdraw financial support for a coal-fired power plant under construction in Turkey [File: Kacper Pempel/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/coal.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
The Chinese-backed coal-fired power plant in Chattogram, Bangladesh has been the site of deadly crackdowns on protests.
![Child labour is on the rise for the first time in nearly two decades, and the coronavirus crisis threatens to upend progress made to get kids into school, the United Nations warned this week [File: Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/child.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
THE WEEK IN NUMBERS
Bitcoin Beach, child labour, Oman’s youth and an $18.9M coin
We gather the numbers to know from the week’s biggest economic news stories so you can impress your friends.
![Young people in Oman took to the streets last month just weeks afer the country introduced a new value-added tax as part of financial reform efforts [File: Christopher Pike/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/327602012.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Oman unrest is harbinger for other Gulf petrostates that need to diversify to create jobs for legions of young people.
![Shareholders of ExxonMobil pulled off a resounding win against the company’s management on Wednesday by electing at least two out of four candidates for board seats selected by activist investors [File: Jim Young/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/exxon.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Environmental defeats against ExxonMobil and Shell show energy giants could be forced to decarbonise more aggressively.
![The victory for Engine No. 1 is an embarrassment for Exxon, unprecedented in the rarefied world of Big Oil, and a sign that institutional investors are increasingly willing to force corporate America to tackle climate change [File: Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/372033818.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Investor with a tiny stake in ExxonMobil scored historic climate victory when it won two seats on the oil giant’s board.
![Milieudefensie director Donald Pols, right, celebrates the outcome of the verdict in the court case of Milieudefensie, the Dutch arm of the Friends of the Earth environmental organisation, against Royal Dutch Shell in The Hague, the Netherlands on Wednesday [Peter Dejong/AP]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/AP_21146493630393.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
The ruling is a landmark victory in the battle against climate change and could set a precedent for other energy giants.