By EBRD Multimedia Team
In its second episode, the EBRD’s new Fearonomics podcast explores the risks of and solutions to the global energy crisis.
Listen to Jonathan Charles, the EBRD’s Managing Director of Communications, in discussion with Sergei Guriev, former EBRD Chief Economist and currently Professor of Economics at Science Po, and Beata Javorcik, the EBRD’s Chief Economist who is also Professor of Economics at Oxford University.
As Europe scrambles to find alternatives to Russian gas, some countries face the prospect of rationing and even fuel poverty.
Energy security, which had slipped down the priority lists of Western policymakers, has made a big comeback.
Even before the outbreak of the war on Ukraine, rising energy prices had brought global use of coal to record levels, while the use of clean energy decreased – a worrying trend.
Meanwhile, the latest report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that even if all carbon-reduction policies that governments had put in place by the end of 2020 were fully implemented, the world would still warm by 3.2C this century.
The next few years are critical, say the IPCC researchers, because if we do not curb emissions by 2030, it will become impossible to limit global heating.
Is there any way to avoid the climate catastrophe?
