RIO DE JANEIRO, April 21 -- When the international community agreed to transition away from fossil fuels at the 2023 COP28 global climate summit, some hailed the moment as the beginning of the end for oil.

But little progress has been made since then, even though the vast majority of scientists agree there's overwhelming evidence of global warming and that it is driven chiefly by the burning of fossil fuels.

The Middle East war, meanwhile, has shown that the world is as dependent as ever on "black gold," with the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz holding the global economy and energy supply in a chokehold.

Some have pointed to the ripple effects of the war as yet another reason to decrease humanity's dependence on fossil fuels....