Climate policy, not climate change, has impacted thousands of businesses around the world, affecting the lives of millions of people, which many analysts believe could lead to an economic collapse that will surpass the financial crisis of 2008, experts claim.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the energy crisis is the starting point of a global economic collapse that has already begun in Europe and is expected to spread to the United States soon.
According to polls, large-scale business collapse is imminent in the UK and Germany. Governments trying to distribute subsidies will require significant borrowing, affecting financial stability as interest rates and fuel costs continue to rise.
More than 75,000 energy-consuming businesses in the UK are at risk of bankruptcy. According to financial intelligence firm Red Flag Alert, they could lay off staff if the government does not provide adequate support.
“Companies cannot cover these costs and will be forced to decide very quickly on headcount or ability to pay their electricity bills,” said Nicola Headlam, Chief Economist at Red Flag. “It will be a reality and happen very quickly.”
Energy prices are doubling and can reach several hundred percent, dealing a death blow to companies. The new UK government, led by Prime Minister Liz Truss, has pledged support to households whose electricity bills hit an 80% spike, but details about the business support are yet to be revealed.
Politicians, however, tend to point the finger east and blame Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent measures taken by Russian President Vladimir Putin for the rise in prices instead of taking into account the impact of climate change policies on the region’s economy.
In line with the European Green Deal and the Paris Agreement, the European Union has adopted a policy of becoming a “climate neutral” society by 2050. This means a sharp turn away from fossil fuels towards renewable sources.
Germany has placed great emphasis on renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, which however are seasonal, highly volatile and intermittent compared to stable sources such as crude oil, natural gas and nuclear reactors.
This makes the country very dependent on foreign suppliers such as Russia. And when Russia turns off the taps in response to European sanctions, the cost of energy skyrockets.
The ideology-based interventionist energy policy failed and led to a recession on the continent. In parts of Europe, people are lining up to buy coal for the winter, Jerry Simmons, president of the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance, said in a recent interview with NTD. The United States is also guilty of importing such policies, he noted.
“This new deal, negotiated in the Biden administration, which has put so much of our taxpayer money into unreliable renewables, is just…it shocks me,” Simmons said.
He pointed to the state of California, which plans to ban the sale of internal combustion vehicles by 2035 and wants all of them to run on electricity. However, there is currently not enough electricity in the state even to avoid a blackout.
Although Tesla CEO Elon Musk is the spokesman for the world’s largest electric vehicle company, he warned against a hasty switch to renewables.
“Realistically, I think that in the short term, we need to use oil and gas because otherwise, civilization will collapse,” Musk told reporters at an energy summit in Norway. The transition to sustainable energy and a sustainable economy “will take several decades.”