Wind and solar need to be backed up, close to 100 per cent, by some other means of power generation. If that backup is provided by open-cycle gas or worse, coal, net zero will never be achieved: nor anything very close to it.

"For every dollar invested in fossil fuels, about 1.7 dollars are now going into clean energy. Five years ago, this ratio was one-to-one," Birol said.

China is ranked first for the number of nuclear power reactors under construction; it has 22 reactor units under construction, concentrated along the east and south coasts.

Interpath Advisory was appointed to handle the administration and sale of Toucan last November, as Thurrock Council in Essex revealed it was owed £692 million ($857 million) by the business. Interpath, which has hired advisers from KPMG to oversee an auction of the 53 sites, is hoping to recover losses through the sale of the farms.

Voluntary production cuts by some members of OPEC is due this coming month. Russia lifts levy on Oil & Gas firms amid G7 Price cap on Crude Oil.

The recommendations come at a time when South Africa is suffering its worst ever power cuts, with blackouts of more than 10 hours a day and a slowing economy, and is opening up the electricity generation industry to private operators.

Regardless of how this breakdown occurred, it is the symptom of greater issues with South Africa’s energy infrastructure.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories increased by 4.5 million barrels to 459.7 million barrels.

Brent fell 30 cents to $75.96 a barrel, WTI was down by 14 cents at $71.69 a barrel.

Earlier this year Russia introduced a voluntary cut of 500,000 b/d from March after EU sanctions on imports of most Russian oil and G7 price caps came into force.