Links / Politics
-
Once a climate project, electrification is now a geopolitical insurance policy. Seventy-five percent of the world’s population lives in net fossil fuel importing countries and collectively spends $1.7 trillion a year importing fuels. Many of those governments facing a loss of confidence in global oil and gas markets are expanding clean energy and electrification projects. In April, France announced $10 billion in subsidies for EVs and heat pumps. The month prior, Spain introduced measures to further speed up electrification, renewable generation, and storage. Vietnam is about to ban petrol motorbikes in downtown Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City; the country’s giant conglomerate Vin is abandoning a planned LNG terminal in favor of a renewable project. Nigeria’s solar imports from China in March were more than five times the level of a year earlier. The list is endless.
Two wars in four years, and especially the war on Iran, are accelerating the energy transition. Domestic electrons are starting to look like security.