- Lights go out in Lebanon as biggest two power stations shut due to fuel shortage
- Energy network unlikely to be restored for ‘several days’, according to officials
- Meanwhile, some Chinese provinces are rationing electricity amid crisis
- Europeans are paying exorbitant prices for liquefied gas and India is low on coal
- Comes as world leaders prepare to meet in Glasgow for the Cop26 summit
Countries around the world are feeling the brunt of the global energy crisis.
Some Chinese provinces are rationing electricity, Europeans are paying exorbitant prices for liquefied gas and Lebanon has run out of centrally-generate electricity.
Furthermore, India is close to running out of coal and in the United States, the price of a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.25 on Friday, up from April’s $1.27.
As the global economy works to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, the sudden energy crisis is putting a strain on supply chains and stirring geopolitical tensions.
What’s more, as global leaders are preparing to meet for the landmark Cop26 in the hope of taking steps towards easing climate change, questions are now being raised about the plausibility of a global green energy revolution.
The crisis has been blamed on a perfect storm of factors, primarily the economic recovery from the pandemic coming after countries spent less on the extraction of fossil fuels over the last 18 months.
An unusually cold winter in Europe that drained the continent’s energy reserves, a series of hurricanes that shutdown Gulf oil refineries, worsening relations between China and Australia and less wind over the North Sea have also contributed.
Lebanon has been left without electricity, plunging the country into darkness amid a severe economic crisis.
A government official told Reuters news agency the country’s two largest power stations, Deir Ammar and Zahrani, had shut down because of a fuel shortage.
The power grid “completely stopped working at noon today” and was unlikely to restart for several days, he said.
h/t Brit Perspective