Putin Becomes The Best Green Energy Champion
Putin’s mindless war is helping a cause he doesn’t care about — Climate Change
I hate what Putin is doing. He is taking hundreds of millions of Russians and Ukrainians into poverty and nightmarish lives. I hope Putin’s Russia stops this senseless war right now and lets the world be in peace.
The world is trying to punish Russia with sanctions and selective financial exclusion. But nobody knows where this will end. Assuming a nuclear war hasn’t wiped us all out, Putin may have single-handedly changed humanity’s fight against climate change.
Europe is in a tight spot:
Europe need Russian oil and gas to keep their economies going and their homes warm. But Putin’s aggression has made them realize that they are vulnerable. Their dependence on Russian gas and oil has given Putin a lot of power over them, and he has used it to finance his war.
With the rising tensions, Putin has threatened Europe with cutting off their energy supplies.Europe has suddenly woken up to the fact that their energy security is at risk.
Finding alternate sources of energy is no more a climate change problem. It is a clear and present danger. It threatens their very existence as an open and democratic society.
Fight against Climate Change before Putin
There are many who are fighting the good fight, but I’m picking the most popular names to recognize their contribution.
Barack Obama brought the world together with the Paris Climate Change. For the first time, everyone agreed that climate change was a huge problem to solve. Getting all the nations of the world to agree on something is monumental!
Elon Musk single handedly is revolutionising the transport industry with Tesla. He may have irreversibly pushed us towards Electric Vehicles (EV). Even if Tesla fails, EVs will be a big part of our future.
Greta Thunberg and other activists have been fighting all along pushing the politicians and policymakers to do more. They are playing their part in ensuring there is a debate about Climate Change.
But their take on it was from the perspective of the collective good! We were making progress, but not fast enough!
It was a massive problem, but wasn’t standing right in front of our eyes. We could afford to look other ways if we wanted to.
So What Did Putin Change
He has made energy security an immediate problem. EU and the rest have to react, there is no choice.
EU has announced its REPowerEU plan recently where it has outlined how it plans to get out of Russian Oil and Gas by 2027.
EU of course would go for some immediate fossil fuel based solutions but also outlined an urgent plan to move towards sustainable energy. I’ve added some excerpts at the end of the post. In summary, they will heavily invest on cleaner energy sources including solar and offshore wind farms!
Barack Obama, Elon Musk & Greta Thunberg have been trying to push the world towards this direction. They have been using the carrots. Now Putin has come with the stick!
Conclusion
If this doesn’t end as a nuclear war where all of us die, Putin may have single handedly changed the course of history. He has achieved what anyone else in the world couldn’t achieve!
But by starting this war, Putin may have inadvertently pushed the EU and the world towards a more sustainable future. It is ironic that Putin is helping causes he doesn’t care about — Climate Change, or the environment.
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Sources:
Some exceprts from the REPowerEU Communication
- ..Doubling sustainable production of biomethane ..
- ..increase the production and import of renewable hydrogen. ..20 million tonnes of hydrogen can replace 50 bcm of Russian gas.
In parallel, we must accelerate our clean energy transition.
- ..need to put millions more photovoltaic panels on the roofs of our homes, businesses, and farms. We must also double the installation rate of heat pumps over the next 5 years.
- ..By the end of this year, almost 25% of Europe’s current electricity production could come from solar energy.
- .. grow our on- and offshore wind capacity, and rollout large-scale solar projects.Some exceprts from the REPowerEU Communication