London, Europe Brief News – The dilemma of the rising oil prices and increased demand for expanded production come at a time when scientists say nations must sharply cut the use of fossil fuels.
As the world reels from spikes in oil and gas prices, the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has laid bare a dilemma: Nations remain extraordinarily dependent on fossil fuels and are struggling to shore up supplies precisely at a moment when scientists say the world must slash its use of oil, gas and coal to avert irrevocable damage to the planet.
While countries could greatly reduce their vulnerability to wild swings in the oil and gas markets by shifting to cleaner sources of energy such as wind or solar power and electric vehicles — which is also the playbook for fighting climate change — that transition will take years.
So, for now, many governments are more urgently focused on alleviating near-term energy shocks, aiming to boost global oil production to replace the millions of barrels per day that Russia has historically exported but which is now being shunned by Western nations.
The two goals aren’t necessarily at odds, officials in the United States and Europe say.
Yet some fear that countries could become so consumed by the immediate energy crisis that they neglect longer-term policies to cut reliance on fossil fuels — a shortsightedness that could set the world up for more oil and gas shocks in the future as well as a dangerously overheated planet.
How to End the Dilemma
“In the short term we have to try to prevent this crisis from creating an economic catastrophe,” said Sarah Ladislaw, a managing director at RMI, a nonprofit that works on clean energy issues. “But there are also longer-term steps we need to take to reduce our underlying energy vulnerabilities.” Otherwise, she said, “we’ll end up right back in this situation several years down the road.”
Oil prices were already high even before war broke out in Ukraine, as the global economy rebounded from the pandemic and demand outstripped supply. But Russia’s invasion in late February caused the price of crude to skyrocket, approaching $130 per barrel this week. On Tuesday President Biden said the United States would ban oil imports from Russia, which before the war produced one out of every 10 barrels of oil the world consumed, a move that further roiled markets.
“The decision today is not without cost here at home. Putin’s war is already hurting American families at the gas pump,” Mr. Biden said.
