THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - APRIL 2026

Final Word

he war launched by the US and

Israel against Iran brings a

sense of déjà vu. One country,

or countries, attacks another, and an

energy crisis ensues – but this time the

ramications are geographically far

more widespread than those that fol-

lowed Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

Energy crises have repeatedly ex-

posed the vulnerability of fossil fuel

dependent energy systems  from the

oil shocks of the 1970s to the gas

crisis following Russia’s invasion of

Ukraine and the current conict in the

Middle East.

The war in Iran began pretty much

four years to the day after the still

ongoing Ukraine invasion, but the

world’s energy sector seems no more

prepared. oth renewables and fossil

fuel lobby groups have seied on the

current conicts as pivotal moments

in terms of what should be the imme-

diate response or focus.

The Global Wind Energy Council

(GWEC) last month launched a Wind

Action Plan setting out emergency

policy measures for governments to

accelerate wind energy deployment

and strengthen their energy resilience.

“We need to break the cycle of ener-

gy crises. The unfolding tragedy in the

iddle East and its impact on surging

oil and gas prices is just the latest re-

minder of our vulnerability to volatile

fossil fuels. e simply cant go on like

this, said en ackwell, E of

GWEC. “Economies built around

limitless, homegrown wind and re-

newable energy benet from long-

term, low-cost price certainty.

eanwhile, a new report by ublic

irst, produced in collaboration with

the Royal United Services Institute

(RUSI) and commissioned by Renew-

ableUK, warned that ongoing reliance

on internationally traded gas has left

the U over-exposed to global price

shocks, scal risk and hostile state

activity. The report nds that although

the UK’s energy system is resilient,

this comes with a heavy price tag for

consumers due to unpredictable spikes

in the costs of fossil fuels.

ome politicians, and not only in the

US, also believe the way to energy

independence is to increase domestic

oil and gas extraction. In the U,

where energy prices have been among

the most affected by the conicts in

Ukraine and Iran, the opposition party

has renewed calls for increased drilling

in the North Sea.

ut is this really the most sensible

response, especially when looking for

lasting energy independence

learly fossil fuel independence

cannot come overnight, and there will

be a need for continued investment for

a period. The International as Union

argues that continued investments in

energy infrastructure – including LNG

 and a diverse energy supply are

“critically needed to mitigate market

shocks such as the one we are current-

ly experiencing.

The ublic irst report recognises the

ongoing role of the UK’s North Sea

gas production and the role of gas

storage. However, it concludes that

domestic gas alone cannot protect the

U from international price volatility,

because gas prices are set on global

markets regardless of where the gas is

produced.

New analysis from Aurora Energy

Research also shows that as gas mar-

kets have become more international,

prices have become more volatile

month-to-month, even in the absence

of major shocks.

erhaps those looking to orth ea

elds for the answer should take note

of U public sentiment. fter all, the

proof of the pudding is always in the

eating.

In late March, UK-based energy

supplier ctopus said solar and heat

pump sales surged by more than half

as the Iran conict not only hit prices

at the pump but household energy

prices too.

Rebecca Dibb-Simkin, Chief Prod-

uct fcer at ctopus Energy, com-

mented: “We are seeing a massive shift

as people stop just asking and start

acting. ritish families are tired of

being held hostage by global fossil fuel

prices.

For the last several years, Eurelectric,

the organisation representing the

common interests of the European

electricity industry, has advocated

direct electrication using renewables

as the primary, cost-effective pathway

to EU climate neutrality. Although the

main thrust for the need for renewables

might have shifted from climate to

energy security, the electrication

messaging has remained steadfast.

In arch 202, it published its own

Electrication ction lan, identify-

ing the main bottlenecks and laying

out concrete proposals to reignite

progress. This was followed by the

Electrication lliances joint recom-

mendations, putting forward  pro-

posed actions across nine categories,

backed by three overarching priorities.

The EU is expected to ofcially

adopt an electrication action plan

this year; the target is to increase

electricitys share of nal energy

consumption to 2 per cent by 200,

up from 2 per cent in 202.

ith the growing global conicts,

the case for electrication is becoming

increasingly clear-cut, and this was

again brought home at last month’s

Eurelectric EVision conference,

which started just days after the rst

strikes on Iran.

Electric vehicles not only play an

important role in global decarbonisa-

tion through the electrication of

transport, but would also protect

government budgets and drivers from

the high fuel prices triggered by the

war. ut in Europe the clean energy

drive has begun to stutter.

uring a high-level political debate

at EVision, Thomas Pellerin-Carlin,

ember of the European arliament,

strongly criticised recent moves by the

EU, pointing out that there has been

a lack of policy coherence in the

bloc.

There has been a lack of policy

coherence in everything the Commis-

sion has been doing – or rather, undo-

ing – over the last 18 months,” he said,

noting that “for decades” non-coherent

energy policies led to sub-optimal

outcomes for the energy sector as a

whole. Realising that it needed to take

a more system-wide approach  ad-

dressing sectors such as transport,

heat, industry and electricity – on July

14, 2021, it unveiled the ‘Fit for 55’

Package.

Pellerin-Carlin commented: “On

one single day, you had 20 pieces of

legislation that go from the Energy

Efciency irective to 

standards

for cars, to carbon pricing, to energy

taxation directive, renewables, and so

on. That’s the way you need to do

policy. ut thats the way the om-

mission has stopped doing policy.

Over the last 18 months, what we’ve

been witnessing is the great unravel-

ling of the Green Deal, with a salami

approach  just one slice after another.

He added: “On December 16th the

Automotive Package came in, and the

package is about slowing down elec-

trication. ou can wrap it how you

want but the CO

for cars regulation,

as proposed by the ommission, is

worse than the existing law that should

have been implemented under the

202 package.

“A lot of my colleagues think

electrication is happening. Its not.

We are consuming less electricity

now than we did in 2019. And the

new proposal by the ommission

will make electrication worse. o

we are in a situation where we have

two parallel debates: there is the

Eurelectric debate on electricity

grids, and there is the debate on

slowing down electrication and at

the end of the day, if we don’t connect

these, we will be building an electric-

ity grid to nowhere.”

As the world becomes more divided

on the direction of travel, indeed we

seem to be going nowhere. pening

the EVision conference, Eurelectric

Secretary General, Kristian Ruby

summed up the situation best: ow

many wars is it going to take us to

understand that our way to indepen-

dence, to strength, goes by our energy

 electric energy

Edwin Starr once sang “War… What

is it good for? Absolutely nothing”.

erhaps there is one thing it may well

prove good for: accelerating electri-

cation and the clean energy transition.

War… What is it good for?

Junior Isles

Cartoon by Jem Soar