Once a wealthy oil exporter, Venezuela’s hopes of reviving its shattered economy are pinned on huge investment in extracting one of the world’s most carbon-heavy blends of crude.

But concerns about climate change are upending energy markets worldwide, and some experts believe much of the country’s most valuable asset will remain stranded in the ground.

“Oil will not save us this time around,” said Pedro Burelli, a former board member of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA who now runs a consultancy in the U.S. “We have to reinvent ourselves as a country and as an economy.”

Under President Nicolás Maduro’s revolutionary socialist government, Venezuela has suffered one of the world’s worst-ever peacetime economic collapses. Gross domestic product has plunged more than three-quarters over the past five years, according to IMF figures. About five million refugees have fled the destitute country.

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