, Columnist
The End of the Petrostate Era Won’t Bring Peace
Conflict is sure to spur to the world’s transition away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy.
Photo: Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/Getty Images
With the Middle East in flames and a fifth of the world’s supplies of oil and gas in limbo thanks to the uncertain status of the Strait of Hormuz, it’s tempting to imagine that a clean-energy world might leave such conflicts behind:
And yet the unravelling of the global fossil fuel system may well be a source of chaos rather than calm. Two wars have already erupted in major oil-exporting regions since global leaders started committing to net-zero five years ago.