Iran war an ‘abject lesson’ on fossil fuel dependence, UN climate chief says
By Kate Abnett
BRUSSELS, March 16 (Reuters) – The U.N. climate secretary will tell EU policymakers on Monday that the disruption to energy markets caused by the Iran war is a “sick lesson” in the risks of relying on fossil fuels and that governments must diversify their economies from oil and gas.
Although geographically far from the crisis in the Middle East, the European Union felt the effects of the crisis due to the increase in global energy prices. Gas prices in Europe rose by 50% during the two-week war.
“Fossil fuel dependency destroys national security and sovereignty and replaces it with ‘submissiveness and rising costs,’” Simon Stiell, Secretary-General of the UN climate change arm UNFCCC, told EU officials and government ministers at an event in Brussels.
In his prepared speech, Stiell will say that reliance on fossil fuels leaves consumers “at the mercy of geopolitical shocks and price fluctuations” and that “Europe is more dependent on fossil fuel imports than almost any other major economy.”
The EU imports more than 90 percent of its oil and 80 percent of its gas.
EU leaders are hastily drafting emergency measures to protect consumers from a rise in energy prices and prevent a repeat of the 2022 European energy crisis, when Russia cut gas deliveries, sending prices to record levels.
The European Commission says that in the long term, a climate change strategy to replace fossil fuels with locally produced “renewable and nuclear energy will ensure countries’ energy security and save them from volatile fuel prices.”
But governments including Italy and Hungary are urging Brussels to weaken climate change policies to provide short-term cost relief to industries.
Stiell will warn that doing so would be “completely delusional” and argue that a switch to renewable sources such as wind and solar power means cheaper energy, jobs in clean-tech industries and secure supplies.
“Docile dependence on fossil fuel imports will drag Europe from crisis to crisis forever,” Stiell will say.
“Renewable energy is turning the tables. Sunlight is not dependent on narrow and unprotected shipping straits.”
(Reporting by Kate Abnett; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
