We have found ourselves in a system where war criminals, climate deniers and billionaires decide who lives and who dies. They choose which economies fail, and which don’t. 

It is hard not to feel powerless in a world that simply watches the same countries committing genocide in Gaza, breach international law in the wider Middle East. 

An escalation tactic used by Iran and directed at the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies travel, has reduced travel through the strait and caused a worldwide oil and gas supply shortage. It’s lead to significant market price increases, and as a result, UK energy bills may rise by up to 20 per cent.  

Although it’s fossil fuel markets that are fluctuating, electricity bills also rise as a result. It’s due to something called marginal cost pricing, where electricity prices are set based on the cost of gas, leaving them similarly exposed to market volatility. 

One solution put forward by the UK government is to invest in our own North Sea oil and gas, to increase security of supply and cost. But the suggestion that this would reduce prices couldn’t be further from the truth: North Sea oil and gas is sold on the international market, meaning that our own reserves would be priced as if imported, making them vulnerable to further price shocks.  

Equally, a large proportion of North Sea oil cannot be processed efficiently by UK refineries, and as a result, roughly 80 per cent of crude extracted from the UK North Sea is exported because it does not match the specifications of domestic refining infrastructure. 

But there is an answer.  

Renewables. 

Not only do they mitigate climate breakdown, but once built, wind and solar farms produce energy at a very low cost. Renewable projects are easily community-owned, allowing groups to use profits from selling excess energy to boost local areas. There are many examples of this in the UK, and projects also provide green, long-term jobs for local people.  

However, oil and gas are still dominating the UK energy supply, because wind and solar are less profitable than fossil fuels, making them incompatible with our current capitalist energy system.  

We are headed for ecological climate collapse as a result of fossil fuels. The undemocratic reality of these energy sources creates soaring energy bills for individuals, and as we are seeing in the Middle East, they cannot be de-linked from wars and human rights abuses.  

Despite the incredible potential of renewable energy to break down the geopolitical and economic power that is currently concentrated in the fossil fuel industry, the transition to these sources is not being encouraged to the extent required.  

Fossil fuels allow the broader and seemingly nonsensical system of neoliberalism to continue, creating record profits for energy companies while bankrupting individuals. 

Fossil fuels kill people and will, ultimately, kill the planet.  

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