🔋 🇺🇸 🛢 How the oilman’s president boosted a green transition

Donald Trump’s Iran war has made fossil fuels expensive and unreliable


France has some of the greenest energy on Earth – all thanks to its decision, after the oil shock of 1973, to stop relying on expensive fossil fuels from the unreliable Gulf. Now, others could follow.

Now, especially if the current energy crisis lengthens, many other countries could follow France in turning away from fossil fuels. Even if the crisis ends now, the memory of the turmoil of recent weeks will surely hasten the green transition.

But with long-term supplies of oil and gas increasingly unpredictable, they may have to. About 80 per cent of the world’s population lives in countries that are net importers of fossil fuels. Those prices have jumped while renewables keep getting cheaper. Last year, they accounted for 85.6 per cent of all new capacity in global power plants. The green transition has already begun. This crisis will accelerate it.

Europe and the Asia-Pacific need a reliable energy base. That now requires abandoning fossil fuels, and electrifying their economies. They will gladly pay premiums to predictable suppliers like Canada, Norway and Australia, which aren’t about to invade anyone or renege on trade deals because their leader is upset. The biggest winner will be China, chief global supplier of electric vehicles, batteries, solar panels and most other components of the green economy. Cannily, it has remained a reliable trade partner. True, going green will make us more dependent on Beijing. But buying panels or EVs is a softer dependency than needing daily Gulf oil.

The longer the crisis lasts, the stronger government action will become. After all, France only announced its nuclear plan five months after the 1973 shock. But consumers today are already leaping. Desperate for cheap energy, they are switching to solar panels and electric cars. Cutting emissions isn’t the aim, just an accidental byproduct.

A fast green transition seemed an impossible dream. Trump may have found the way to achieve it.

📎 Financial Times

🪂 🇬🇧 🇸🇭 British Army paratroopers and medics have been parachuted onto Tristan da Cunha — the world’s most remote inhabited island, after a British resident was suspected of contracting hantavirus.

The emergency operation marks the first time UK medical personnel have parachuted in to deliver humanitarian aid.

Oxygen tanks and medical supplies were air-dropped onto the island, which is normally only reachable by sea.

The suspected case is linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship, where eight hantavirus cases and three deaths have been recorded.

📎 Europa

📢 🇺🇸 🇮🇷 U.S. President Donald J. Trump has made his first comments since the news broke that Iran sent their response to the U.S. proposal through Pakistani mediators. While nothing was said about the proposal by President Trump, we can garner that the proposal sent by Iran was likely unacceptable to the administration, as the president was highly critical of the “games” that Iran has played with past administrations to gain concessions.

📎 OSINTdefender