There is a fact we should all be mindful of. The oil shocks of the 1970s resulted in what can only be described as a major leap forward in global energy efficiency.  The first nuclear power plant was opened in 1950, but it wasn’t until the late 1970s that numerous nuclear power plants were on the drawing boards. As of March 2022, there are 439 civilian fission reactors in the world. There are now 56 under construction and 96 more planned, which will soon exceed 10 per cent of global power demand.

The total amount of solar energy absorbed by our planet is approximately 122 PW per year. This is about the same amount of energy in one and half hours (1 hr 25 mins to be precise) than the entirety of human global demand in one year. Solar energy is now the world’s cheapest form of energy generation. As of 2021, solar power was generating 4 per cent of the world’s electricity but is on target to reach 20 per cent by 2050. It will probably reach that target much sooner.

In 2021, wind supplied over 1800 TWh of electricity, which was over 6% of world electricity – about 2% of world energy. To help meet the Paris Agreement goals to limit climate change, analysts say it should expand by a rate of 1% of electricity generation per year. It wasn’t achieving that – it is now. Thirteen countries of the top 20 wind power generators in the world are in Europe.

Hydroelectricity is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one-sixth of the world’s electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and also more than nuclear power.

There is an upside to the dreadful energy crisis being experienced today. It is one that will go down in the history books.

Vladimir Putin has caused a catastrophic global fight for energy. It is a fight that many say he is winning. Right now, that may be the case but Russia will lose it in the end. This is history repeating itself. Russia will be a pariah to the West but, most importantly to its biggest customer – Europe. When the war in Ukraine is settled – however it turns out – Russia will not recover from this dreadful event for at least a generation – but long before then, Russia will effectively be bankrupt. Oil and gas sales provide nearly 40% of the federal budget revenue of Russia and currently makes up 60% of Russian exports.

No Western or modern democratic country will trust Russia again. The Cold War has been re-established. Sanctions will remain for years. Russia’s infrastructure will slowly crumble because of it – just as energy infrastructure through technology is being constructed everywhere else. But make no mistake, the global energy crisis is exactly that – it will see old coal power stations fired up and new hunting grounds for oil and gas fields. It’s a transitional emergency. But for Russia, the clock is ticking down.

As the director of the International Energy Agency said just yesterday – “Russia was banking on liquefied natural gas as the main way to diversify its exports away from a heavy reliance on Europe. This now appears a distant prospect without international partners and technologies. A homegrown liquefaction technology has been beset by difficulties and delays. Russia’s LNG expansion plans are now back on the drawing board.”

Clean energy is coming to the rescue in more ways than one. First, its huge expansion is being pushed by several factors – Putin being the biggest at the moment. But as the world slowly ‘decouples’ from its reliance on globalisation – resilience or to put it another way – less dependence on others is now a major factor in political decision-making. The second is the desperate need to decarbonise the world before it is too late. The climate crisis warnings were ignored and now reality is catching up. Last year and this year, the world experienced what climate change really meant. Record heatwaves, drought, wildfires, floods, hurricanes and typhoons battered the planet as described here in the Climate Reality Project. Without a massive surge in investment towards decarbonising our atmosphere, we are in bigger trouble than we really imagine.

Inadvertently, Putin is pushing the world to act differently when it comes to sources of energy. His thuggish strategy will mean the downfall of Russia when he is gone. Eventually, the world will get on without him and without Russian hydrocarbons. The global energy crisis will force a painful transition irrespective of what happens in Ukraine. It may take another decade or more – but it will happen.