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Your energy bills are probably going up. The average price of gasoline in the U.S. is currently $3.38 a gallon, 56% more than a year ago. This winter, the roughly half of U.S. homes heated by natural gas could see as much as a 30% hike in their bills and increases will be even steeper for the few that use propane and heating oil.
U.S. consumers are far from alone in the energy price crunch: in Europe, which relies much more heavily than the U.S. on imports for its natural gas supply, the fuel currently costs four times more per megawatt hour than it did in January, panicking governments over the potential impact on household heating bills as temperatures begin to fall. In China, surging demand for coal has led to severe shortages at power stations and in industry, and skyrocketing prices.
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Some business leaders and politicians say the price spikes for these fossil fuels are evidence that the world is moving too fast to phase them out of energy systems as we try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In the U.S., Republicans have tried to link the rising fuel costs to the Biden Administration’s push for climate action. The head of Saudi Arabia’s state oil company, which does not plan to end production for decades, told Sky News last week that the world needs to stop “demonizing” the fossil fuel sector and work with it to prevent “a global economic crisis due to lack of supplies.” China’s latest national climate plan, published Sunday, said that going forward, officials must balance emissions reduction with energy security to “prevent overreaction and ensure safe carbon reduction.”
But there is no evidence we are phasing out fossil fuels too quickly. In fact, a U.N. report published Tuesday found that, under current plans, the world’s largest economies will be producing more than double the amount of coal, oil and gas in 2030 than would be compatible with the goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement of limiting global warming to 1.5°C over…
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Source : time
