The full-scale Russian war in Ukraine started on 24 February 2022 is a crime against the humanity and is the battle between progress, democracy, freedom, the rule of law and despotism, crime, and diabolic oppression of people. Being the biggest owner of fossil fuels, Russia blackmails the whole world using energy dependance of many countries. By addressing this aspect effectively, it is possible to decrease Russia’s economic blackmailing, improve environmental conditions and curtail Russia’s military aggression threatening the whole world.
Five key reasons for supercharging energy transition and imposing total embargo on Russian fossil fuels:
- Unlimited extraction and use of fossil fuels is the main cause of climate emergency, with scientists pointing to the urgent need to halve global GHG emissions in less than 10 years to avoid runaway climate change escalated by feedback loops.
- Fossil fuels also serve as a main pillar of petrostate dictatorships who threaten democracy and peace. Exports of fossil fuels is the main source of income for Putin’s criminal regime, who started a full-blown war of aggression against democratic sovereign state of Ukraine and imposed a threat of nuclear terror against Europe and the whole world.
- Fossil supplies from Russia places governments of dependent countries in vulnerable position, where Putin’s regime uses it as a tool for economic blackmail and as political weapon – using it to mobilize anti-democratic forces and to feed pro-Russian oligarchs.
- Everyone who supports or tolerates fossil fuel dependence on Russia becomes complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity, which are exercised by Putin’s regime.
- At current stage of technological development, the use of fossil fuels can be scaled down dramatically by intelligent energy efficiency measures and replaced by renewable energy sources, which provide the cheapest energy and can be manufactured and installed at mass scale in short timeframes. Another proposal is to produce solar panels, wind turbines and heat pumps at speed and scale as military equipment.
Quotes from Bill Mckibben’s article in the Guardian:
If you want to stand with the brave people of Ukraine, you need to find a way to stand against oil, gas and coal.
We may need, for the remaining weeks of this winter, to insure gas supplies for Europe, but by next winter we need to remove that lever. That means an all-out effort to decarbonize that continent, and then our own. It’s not impossible.
We have to do it anyway, if we’re to have any hope of slowing the climate change. And we can do it fast if we want: huge offshore windfarms in Europe have been built inside of 18 months without any wartime pressure.
We should be in agony today – people are dying because they want to live in a democracy, want to determine their own affairs. But that agony should, and can, produce real change. Caring about the people of Ukraine means caring about an end to oil and gas.
For 12 days Ukrainians have been fighting courageously for democratic future of the whole world and currently our key request is introduction of No-Fly Zone over Ukraine. This practice was used earlier in Libya in 2011 when NATO suspended all flights over the country’s territory. This crucial military action should be introduced to protect Ukraine from Russian jets, drones, and missiles and save lives of Ukrainian civilians.
We have to act immediate and rigidly to save the planet and humanity.
