"The energy crunch is doing much more to accelerate the EV transition than any message on climate change," said Lawrence Loh, who heads the Center for Governance and Sustainability at the National University of Singapore (NUS). "Ultimately, it's about what hits your pocket-and the Iran war hits your pocket right away."
By weaponising the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran has helped drive energy prices sharply higher, forced the International Monetary Fund to slash its forecasts for UK growth and, now, has pushed the British government into preparing for food shortages at home.
Octopus Energy reported that its heat pump orders more than doubled in March compared to February, while sales of solar power systems increased by almost 80%. This trend reflects a growing consumer shift towards renewable energy solutions.
In Europe, we have maybe six weeks or so (of) jet fuel left. If we are not able to open the Strait of Hormuz ... I can tell you soon we will hear the news that some of the flights from city A to city B might be canceled as a result of lack of jet fuel.
The British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) will be widened by 40 per cent, bringing an additional 3,000 firms under its umbrella. The scheme will exempt qualifying businesses from the indirect costs of three legacy green levies: the Renewables Obligation, Feed-in Tariffs and the Capacity Market.
OEUK highlighted that natural gas extracted from the North Sea has a significantly lower emissions footprint compared to imported liquefied natural gas (LNG), which often involves more environmentally taxing transportation and processing methods.
Reaching net zero would cost about 4bn a year, the CCC found, or close to 100bn by 2050, which was roughly equivalent to the energy-related costs of the fossil fuel shocks that followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The findings contradict widespread claims made by rightwing thinktanks and populist politicians including the Reform party that net zero would represent a crippling cost of 9tn to the UK's economy.
Doubling down on renewables is, yes, right for climate change, it's, yes, right for jobs, it is also essential because we keep on seeing these lived examples of how instability, through regional instability, is creeping into our energy prices, for which the British Government has no agency.
