Harvest Mode
Aligning Extraction Projects with a Clean Future
Harvest mode allows major extraction companies to suspend investment in new wells and exploration projects while maximising cash flow from existing infrastructure. This financially prudent strategy conserves capital that would otherwise risk becoming stranded assets, aligns industry portfolios with a Paris-compatible pathway, and generates revenue that can be channelled into renewable energy development, energy efficiency, and just transition priorities.
What you’ll learn in the brief:
- Global demand scenarios: How ceasing new extraction investments alters future supply and demand curves in line with International Energy Agency projections.
- Financial case for harvest mode: Why avoiding new infrastructure boosts net present value and mitigates stranded-asset risk.
- Climate alignment: How harvest mode supports the IEA’s Net Zero by 2050 Scenario and the 1.5 °C Paris goal, and where site closures remain necessary.
- “No New Fossil” principle: A science-backed framework urging no approval of new fossil extraction projects to maintain climate coherence.
- Real-world examples: Case studies of harvest mode in practice at Harum Energy and PEMEX.
- Reinvestment strategies: Options for redirecting harvest revenues into renewables, energy efficiency, and other just-transition priorities.
