Europe's "meek" dependence on fossil fuel imports will leave the bloc "forever lurching from crisis to crisis", UN climate body UNFCCC executive secretary Simon Stiell told European climate and environment ministers today, as the conflict in the Middle East continues to push oil and gas prices higher.
He said households and industries in Europe are left to pay the price, and that fossil fuel dependency is "ripping away national security and sovereignty and replacing it with subservience and rising costs".
The disruption of global energy supplies is being felt worldwide, echoing the "market turmoil" stemming from the war in Ukraine in 2022, Stiell said.
French president Emmanuel Macron also said last week that higher energy prices in France were the cost of "dependence".
"You heard me talking for years about more [energy] autonomy and decarbonisation because France doesn't produce oil and gas," Macron said, adding the country's actions towards the energy transition will reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and its exposure to geopolitical risks.
Stiell said today the EU is more reliant on fossil fuel imports than any other major economy, citing costs of €420bn ($482bn) in 2024.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said last week that the EU should act to reduce the impact of natural gas costs on power prices and noted the bloc is "far less" exposed to fossil fuel imports thanks to its diversification efforts. But she said the EU will remain "vulnerable and dependent" for as long as it imports "a significant share of fossil fuels from unstable regions".
"Renewables turn the table," Stiell said today. "Sunlight doesn't depend on narrow and vulnerable shipping straits." He was referring to the de-facto closure of the strait of Hormuz following Iranian attacks on commercial ships and Tehran's renewed threats on shipping in the waterway last week. Around 25pc of global seaborne oil exports and 20pc of global LNG exports transit through the chokepoint.
"Renewables and resilience keep bills down and create far more jobs," Stiell said. He pictured the EU as a "leader in climate action and ambition", highlighting its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). But the EU ETS has come under renewed scrutiny since the US-Iran war broke out, with some countries in the bloc voicing concerns that the scheme is adding costs for industries and households already grappling with higher energy prices. Italy's prime minister Giorgia Meloni has called for an immediate suspension of the ETS for fossil fuel-fired power producers, to help curb high energy prices until global fossil fuel prices return to pre-war levels.
"Some responses to the fossil fuel crisis, incredibly, argue for doubling down on the cause of the problem and slowing the shift to renewable energy even though it is clearly cheaper, safer, and faster to market," Stiell said. He said this was "completely delusional" as history shows that fossil fuel crises will happen again.
Without the EU ETS, the bloc would consume 100bn m³ more gas, "making us more vulnerable and more dependent," von der Leyen said last week.
"Last century, when a continent reeling from war came together to build the foundations of integration, energy was top of the list because countries understood that secure and affordable supplies, achieved through cooperation, were the basis of peace and prosperity," Stiell said.
