By Ihab Shaarawy
Citing the Russian attack on Ukraine as the reason, the United Kingdom decided to revisit the 2019 ban on shale gas exploration, while more European policymakers and investors are giving more attention to traditional fuels that were once taboo in Europe.
But a bigger shock came from the United States where President Joe Biden is reversing his declared environmental policies by calling for more drilling and urging oil companies to quickly produce from their federal leases. Since the beginning of the crisis, Biden has repeatedly released oil from emergency stockpiles to make American petrol cheaper than elsewhere in the developed world. For the same purpose, he allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to temporarily lift regulations prohibiting the summer use of an ethanol-gasoline blend called E15, which contributes to smog in warmer months.
As global prices of crude oil, gas, and coal are soaring, the Russia-Ukraine war is posing a real threat to the world’s progress in achieving renewable energy and climate change targets.
The stark change in the tendency towards fossil fuels especially in what seemed to be environmentally-minded Biden administration has caused an alarm among environmentalists and climate action activists.
On coming to office, Biden promised to tackle the planet’s climate crisis. Within hours of installing himself in the Oval Office, he scrapped the Keystone XL heavy oil pipeline from Canada. He also launched a campaign to eliminate fracking on federal land and persuading the public to buy electric vehicles.
However, fears of global oil and gas shortages and the scramble by western governments for new supplies have altered the outlook for American fossil fuel and how the White House views them is changing.
The shift in policies towards fossil fuels has prompted more than 500 organisations from all over the world to send a letter to President Biden and other world leaders, urging them to speed the end of the fossil fuel era and spur a just and equitable transition to 100 per cent renewable energy.
Another stark warning came from Ban Ki-moon, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations and Patrick Verkooijen, the CEO of the Global Centre on Adaptation, who advised western governments notto forsake other humanitarian crises, including the enormous hardship caused by climate change, in the rush to aid Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s war.
“Ukrainians rightly deserve our aid and solidarity. So do families and pensioners whose incomes cannot cover soaring food and energy prices,” the letter said. “We also understand that public finances, already stretched by the pandemic, are under great strain. But deciding which is the more worthy cause – climate change or Ukrainian refugees – is a false dichotomy. It is also a huge policy mistake, they wrote in an opinion article published recently.”
They indicated that neglecting climate adaptation, in particular, is immensely short-sighted. “It is the best strategy we have to address the root cause of many other crises, including those triggered by climate disasters, water scarcity, desertification, harvest failures, and rising sea levels,” they added.
The Western governments’ embrace of oil to respond to the rising price of gas indicates that they are failing to capitalise on a historic moment to move beyond dependence on fossil fuels and into clean, green renewable energy.
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