(Alliance News) – European leaders risk being “left behind” globally unless they change their energy strategy to prioritize supply and affordability, Tony Blair has warned.
In a foreword to a new report which also calls on Britain and the EU to move to a “common market framework”, the former Labor prime minister said decarbonisation was “important” but “cannot be done in isolation.”
In their presentation for the Tony Blair Institute paper, Blair and former Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi said the countries that will succeed are those that can deliver “abundant, secure and affordable energy on a large scale”.
They point to the world’s largest emitting companies, China, the US and India, saying that these countries have planned their energy policy to ensure supply, expand grids and protect domestic energy at speed.
The two former leaders said: “Europe has led the world on climate ambitions and is making real progress in reducing emissions. That progress is significant.”
But the world’s center of gravity has shifted.
“The future of the energy system will be determined in an economy where demand is rising rapidly—and where the most important thing is to ensure that supply keeps pace.”
They said Europe “has the potential to lead this next phase” but warned that doing so would require “a clear narrative, strong political direction and a new focus on delivery”.
“Unless Europe aligns its strategy with that reality, it risks falling behind those who are already building the energy systems, and economic order, of the future,” said Blair and Renzi.
After controversy erupted last spring with Blair arguing that limiting fossil fuels in the short term would “fail,” the precedent is careful not to overtly criticize net-zero policy.
It insists that “this is not an argument for weakening climate ambition” but for “embedding it within a more effective strategy – one that recognizes that clean energy is successful when it helps deliver more and more affordable energy.”
However, the report, commissioned by TBI’s chief policy adviser, Tone Lanengen, describes the UK and Denmark’s decisions to end oil production as having made the region “highly exposed to international markets in volatile times.”
Citing the move amid “mistakes” in energy use in Europe, the paper says: “Fossil fuels were not important when dependence was high.
“Europe’s long-standing reliance on Russian fossil fuels has now been slowly replaced by reliance on Middle Eastern and American resources.
“Decisions by key producers such as Denmark and the UK to end oil production have made the region more exposed to international markets in volatile times.”
The report also recommends that the UK and the EU move towards a “common market” relationship in the long term, arguing that Britain should also be allowed to “join” the continent’s “system planner” which aims to link the European electricity sector.
It says: “In the long term, EU EU relations must converge towards a common market framework – not for political reasons, but because the concrete realities of Europe’s interconnected energy systems leave no other option.”
A spokesperson for Energy Security and Net Zero said: “Net Zero is the economic opportunity of the 21st century, clean energy is the path to energy dominance, lower debt for good and thousands of good jobs in our communities.
“The other lesson of the fuel crisis is that the UK needs to get off the oil rollercoaster and into domestic clean energy that we control.
“We are aggressively moving towards clean domestic energy to reduce debt effectively – including decisive action to cut the impact of gas on electricity prices.”
source: PA
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