Fresh research is showing that the United States' war on Iran could be accelerating the need to adopt renewable energy in the United Kingdom, according to The Guardian.
Transition Security calculated that Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 tightened oil and gas supplies, resulting in $1.8 trillion in costs to Europe and the U.K.
Expanding domestic oil production to meet needs is unlikely to be a fruitful solution for rising prices, as 80% of British oil is exported.
Transition Security expects the burgeoning conflict in Iran will further raise prices on oil and gas.
"There is a clear solution to this fossil fuel cost chaos — renewables are now cheaper, safer, and faster to market, making them the obvious pathway to energy security and sovereignty," Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Ed Miliband said, per The Guardian.
Report author Kevin Cashman said the 2022 energy crisis, as the newspaper called it, "presented a fork in the road for Europe — double down on volatile fossil fuel markets, or pivot to homegrown clean energy and greater security."
In addition to being a driving cause of the rising cost of living and prone to price spikes, oil and gas produce much of the world's atmospheric pollution. These emissions trap heat in the atmosphere, exacerbate destructive weather patterns, and cause even more costs in the way of severe property damage from disasters.
Luckily, the U.K. is in a prime location to take advantage of off-shore wind power, which can replace oil and gas in many situations. And British legislators last year removed barriers to construction.
Experts were keen to make the urgency of transitioning to clean energy clear to government decision-makers.
"This is not the first time we have seen the gas price soar off the back of conflict and it will not be the last," said Tessa Khan, executive director of Uplift. "We need this government to urgently learn the lessons of the past five years — that the U.K.'s dependence on oil and gas is making us all poorer — and instead free us from fossil fuels by doubling down on renewables and upgrading homes."
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