The war in the Middle East is exposing the high cost of dependence on fossil fuels—it is “ripping away national security and sovereignty,” the UN climate secretary told an EU summit on Monday.
“Sunlight doesn’t depend on narrow and vulnerable shipping straits, wind blows without massive taxpayer-funded naval escorts [and] renewable energy allows countries to insulate themselves from global turmoil and to side-step might-is-right politics,” Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said at the 2026 Green Growth Summit in Brussels.
According to Stiell, the oil and gas market turmoil resulting from the war in the Middle East is an “abject lesson” on how reliance on fossil fuels can harm global economies and national security.
The war and the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the vital chokepoint through which 20% of global oil and gas flows pass, have pushed energy prices up by about 50% in two weeks, with the benchmark crude prices at $100 per barrel early on Monday.
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The EU is particularly vulnerable to natural gas price spikes, while the biggest supply disruption in history is also choking off jet fuel and diesel supply as Middle Eastern flows are off the market, Asian refiners slash run rates, and Asian fuel producers are limiting or banning fuel exports to ensure their domestic supply.
Stiell’s message to ministers meeting in Brussels was simple: “Meek dependence on fossil fuel imports will leave Europe forever lurching from crisis to crisis, with households and industries literally paying the price,” the UN said.
“Renewables turn the tables,” the official added, noting that “fossil fuel dependency means economies, household budgets and business bottom lines are at the mercy of geopolitical shocks and price volatility in a chaotic world.”
Economies are scrambling to contain the fallout from depending on Middle East oil and gas supply and energy commodity prices. India and China are boosting coal consumption and production, developed north Asian economies are likely to boost nuclear power and renewable energy rollout, and Europe will seek to continue raising the share of clean energy supply while considering capping natural gas prices.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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