PARIS (AFP) – The cost-of-living crisis pushing millions of people towards poverty in Europe is driven by fossil fuels, according to a leading Earth systems scientist, who has warned that global heating risks causing runaway climate change.
Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and co-author of the new book Earth For All, said that spiraling inflation was in large measure a result of decades of government failures to decarbonize their economies.
“I find it very disturbing that our political leaders in Europe are unable to communicate that high living costs right now are caused by higher prices on fossil fuels,” he told AFP at the book’s launch on Tuesday.
“So this is fossil fuel-driven, supply-driven inflation. If 20 years ago you invested in solar (panels) or had a share in a wind farm, you’re not affected today.
“The only reason why we have this crisis now is that we’ve had 30 years of underinvestment in preparing towards this turbulent phase which we knew would be coming,” said Rockstrom.
“We’ve been saying since 1990 that we need to phase out the fossil fuel-driven economy towards a renewable-driven economy. And now here we are -- we’re now hitting the wall.”
European energy prices soared to new records last week ahead of what many analysts expect to be a challenging winter as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to disrupt oil and gas supplies.
The year-ahead contract for German electricity reached 995 euros ($995) per megawatt hour, while the French equivalent surged past 1,100 euros -- a more than tenfold increase in both countries from last year.
In Britain, energy regulator Ofgem said it would increase the electricity and gas price cap almost twofold from October 1 to an average £3,549 ($4,197) per year.
Rockstrom, who helped pioneer the concept of planetary boundaries -- thresholds of pollution or warming within which humanity can thrive -- said he hoped the current energy price crisis would be “communicated as another nail in the coffin” for oil, gas and coal.
“This should accelerate our transition towards renewable energy systems,” he said.
Rockstrom has spent two years working on Earth For All -- a guide to help humans survive climate change -- with several of the authors of The Limits to Growth.
Written 50 years ago, that groundbreaking work warned that the development of civilization could not go on indefinitely with no limit to resource consumption.