The three top thinktanks of Europe; Corporate Europe Observatory, l’Observatoire des Multinationales and Recommon, which have been working for a fossil-free green energy future of Europe, released an investigative report titled “Fuelling the cost of living crisis– How the fossil fuel industry turned the Ukraine war into an opportunity for extra profits and further lock-in of gas” on October 28, that shares the mind-boggling situation that Europe is facing after the Russia-Ukraine conflict resulted in sanctions on Russia.
The report indicates that anti-Russian sanctions have resulted in a situation in which extraordinary, unusual and unprecedented political decisions are being taken by the European leadership that have far-reaching consequences for the European climate. Climate watchdogs claim that fossil-fuel providers have enjoyed extraordinary access to EU leaders and have pocketed unprecedented profits. The report also claims that more than 100 meetings between the fossil fuel industry and European Commission leaders have taken place since February and Commission President Von der Leyen met several times with oil and gas CEOs while formulating the bloc’s energy response to the Ukraine crisis. The report claims that fossil fuel providers have pocketed €78 billion in profits up to September (Shell, Total Energies, Eni, and Repsol).
The basic fact is that denial of access to basic survival conditions always resulted in the exploring of options and opening new opportunities. Closing one country’s borders or cutting one country’s diplomatic ties can never just affect the “subject country” but it always has a global effect
The total sum of the report is that the European Union has opted to give the fossil fuel industry even more influence on decision-making in the name of the “emergency” that Europe is facing after clamping sanctions on the Russian energy industry and energy prices continued skyrocketing in Europe and the rest of the world, while fossil fuel providers enjoyed record profits.
“This choice to leave the economic power and political influence of the oil and gas industry untouched may have been enough to secure enough gas and fill storage facilities to pass one winter, but in the long term, it has locked us in a spiral of skyrocketing energy prices, fossil fuel addiction, and climate disaster,” the report claims.
The Report indicates that the oil and gas industry has successfully lobbied for massive public support for new gas infrastructure and gas-based technology developments and proposes 300 new gas projects over the next ten years to respond to the ongoing “emergency” (Russia-Ukraine conflict). The EU has set up an ‘Energy Platform Industry Advisory Group’ exclusively made up of Europe’s major gas companies, with a mandate to effectively co-manage the Commission’s plans to rid of Russian gas, and EU and US oil and gas lobby groups have also been working with senior Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to push for more domestic gas production and more imports.
The Report believes that European leadership is walking away from commitments it has with the issue of global warming and climate change and taking decisions in contradiction with the guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that is very clear about the fact that we need to stop new oil and gas projects and initiate a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels if we want to keep global temperatures increase below 1.5°C. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change and it provides regular assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation. The IPCC currently has 195 members.
I being a witness to the latest climate change disaster in Pakistan could not agree more with all 195 members as Pakistan is a consequence of all these political decisions and cozy meetings with fossil fuel sellers and policymakers as an aftermath. Let me add that in Pakistan 33 million people are internally displaced due to these floods and l 178,472,.048 acres of crops are damaged and 106,453 livestock are killed.
It is understandable that winter is knocking at the door of Europe which has yet to find any sustainable choice high-priced deals that would pass on to consumers who are already facing high-priced food supply as the grain market is in extreme turbulence due to the suspension of normal supplies from Ukraine and Russia. A number of experts are claiming that the high price of energy is one factor but the most threatening aspect is possible erratic supplies when winter will demand more consumption and there will be an extraordinary gap between demand and supply of energy. We will see what would be the cost a consumer will pay for political decisions taken in Washington and Brussels but this fact again testifies that the desire for supremacy and hegemony has always played havoc with humanity.
Power corridors always take decisions for enhancing more power even at the cost of the population they rule. In the post-World War II era economic and political sanctions and the threat of global isolation are major tools to subjugate frail players but we forget that mankind from primitive times has a history of survival even when food and water had been denied by an enemy group or by natural disasters like floods, famines, jungle fires, an eruption of volcanoes, and so on.
The basic fact is that denial of access to basic survival conditions always resulted in the exploring of options and opening new opportunities. Closing one country’s borders or cutting one country’s diplomatic ties can never just affect the “subject country” but it always has a global effect.
The prime example is the Ukraine-Russia conflict. Russia is surviving sanctions by finding buyers like China for wheat, oil, and gas but the western world that has imposed sanctions on Russia is on the losing side. The drastic impact of the conflict has already been reported on global food security as both countries are major food baskets of the world. The situation is also hampering the western policy it has been following for decades in reference to climate change as Europe is compelled to use coal for energy production and forgetting “the Fossil-Free Politics”. Coal, which is considered the dirtiest among fossil fuels, is now the biggest demand in Europe.
Today’s victim of climate change is Pakistan and someone else will be tomorrow. This process will not stop until humans stop taking compromised political decisions by putting humanity at risk.
