A World Facing Too Many Headwinds

The prices of petroleum products have been at their highest since 2014 after Russia invaded Ukraine in fears it would receive approval to join the North American Treaty Organization (NATO), a security alliance spearheaded by Russia’s major geopolitical rival, the United States.

As the Eastern European country accounts for a third of oil supply and about 40 per cent of natural gas,
Europe has had its fair share of inflation and economic headwinds. Many European countries stopped the exploration of oil and gas on their soils, shut down coal and nuclear plants in the aftermath of climate change protests
and energy transition goals but ended up beholden to Russia.

Research work has recently posited that renewables might not be so pure after all as battery hazards could compare to fossil fuel emissions.

The US Energy Information Administration meanwhile projects that oil will still remain as the largest energy source for the world till 2050, regardless of surging renewables capacity, as energy demand would rise by 47 per cent in
30 years. The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) held emergency meetings to enact supply controls amid falling prices of commodities due to the release of crude oil from the US’s Strategic Petroleum reserve.

The US countered OPEC+ claiming it was aiding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but the Saudi Energy Minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman hit back, saying the cartel only wished to close the disconnect between paper and physical oil
markets, which was economically unrealistic.

US authorities have threatened to pass regulations to limit OPEC’s control on markets and were mulling
restricting arms sales, but Saudi as a US ally in the Middle East, makes this highly unlikely and counterproductive to US interests in the Gulf region.

Europe has never been the same since February and is likely to be embroiled in an extended recession and some countries have been reversing their green energy policies. Reports from the World Bank and other resource organisations warn that the continuation of the war into 2023 could be fiscally disastrous to the continent.

The multinational alliance, BRICS, on their part, also called on world leaders to not abandon pressing global issues for the
Ukraine war.

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