The UK energy crisis shows why it is time to look beyond fossil fuels

MANY critiques of the UK’s unfolding gas supply crisis have focused on the peculiarities of how its energy market is regulated. But that is to ignore the global scope of this crisis. In Europe, for example, gas prices are up 170 per cent since this January.

The UK is particularly vulnerable to gas volatility due to its “dash for gas” to replace coal for electricity generation since the 1990s. That was largely driven by economics, with a happy by-product of reducing carbon emissions.

Now countries the world over are attempting to replicate it. In 2019, demand for gas …