(Bloomberg) — Saudi Arabia’s finance minister echoed warnings from the kingdom’s oil officials that a slowdown in fossil-fuel investment globally will cause spikes in energy prices.

“We have very serious concerns that the world could run short of energy if we are not careful in managing the transition,” Mohammed Al-Jadaan said. “In Saudi Arabia, we have an interest in maintaining demand. We are also worried that demand is increasing and there are no alternatives to fill that gap and we don’t want oil prices to go too high.”

Al-Jadaan’s comments, shortly after the government released its 2022 budget, underscore the alarm among some major oil producers that Western governments and energy companies are pulling back from fossil fuels too quickly.

Chief executive officer at the state-owned energy company Saudi Aramco (SE:) said last week the energy transition was “chaotic” and higher prices could trigger “social unrest.” While companies such as Aramco were making rapid progress developing renewable forms of energy, he said, it would be decades before they could fully take over.

Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman has argued this year’s surge in , coal and prices demonstrates the need for more spending on their production.

These opinions are different from those of climate activists who believe that they must be followed if the earth is to stop warming. If the world wants to reduce carbon emissions, the International Energy Agency (which advises wealthy countries) has asked for a halt in new investments in fossil fuels.

According to the International Energy Forum, Riyadh’s think tank, oil and gas expenditures fell 30% to $309 Billion in 2020. They had barely recovered this year.

The Persian Gulf states are still investing billions in increasing their output. Saudi Arabia intends to increase its daily production capacity from 12 million barrels to 13,000,000 barrels by 2027.

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