The global energy crisis may be about to get worse — potentially much worse.
With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine lifting the cost of filling gas tanks, heating and cooling homes and powering industry across the globe, leaders are scrambling for ways to halt a spike in living costs that have sparked deadly protests from Africa to Sri Lanka.
In the US, officials warn that a vast swath of the nation, from the Great Lakes to the West Coast, is at risk of power blackouts. Scorching weather in Europe — following the third-warmest June on record — underscores the consequences of a warming planet.
It’s the most extreme energy crisis the world has ever witnessed, says Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, and it may have “serious implications for the global economy” as winter approaches.
US President Joe Biden is on a tour of the Middle East this week in which he hopes to convince OPEC members Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to raise crude output to help tame high global energy prices. Group of Seven leaders also agreed last week to explore capping the price of Russian oil exports. That’s unlikely to be enough.
Big companies have been laying off employees and going dark since last month over soaring utility bills. High temperatures also pose potentially lethal danger, with officials in London issuing an alert requiring health-care services to protect high-risk groups.
While urging people to conserve energy, governments are also firing up coal plants again to plug the supply gap, a move that risks exacerbating the climate crisis.
Still, there’s a possible silver lining. Birol suggests that, just as the energy crisis of the 1970s and 1980s drove the development of nuclear and other technologies, today’s squeeze may accelerate a push into renewables.
As Chris Bowen, Australia’s climate change and energy minister, said today: “There’s no time to waste.” — Michael Winfrey