The European Union is “considering reviving energy-crisis measures ‌it used in 2022 when Russia slashed gas deliveries, to address the unfolding disruption to energy markets caused by the Iran war, the bloc’s energy chief said on Tuesday”, reports Reuters. Speaking after a virtual meeting of EU countries’ energy ministers, EU energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen ​said the plans included “proposals to curb grid tariffs and taxes on electricity”, says the newswire. Politico reports that Jorgensen urged Europeans to “work from home, drive and fly less, and for EU countries to urgently roll out renewables”. According to the outlet, he said: “The more you can do to save oil, especially diesel, especially jet fuel, the better off we are.”

MORE ON EU

• Italy is set to postpone its shutdown of coal-fired power to 2038, 13 years later than planned, says Reuters.
• Bulgaria is to become the first EU country to introduce an energy aid scheme for industry, reports Reuters.
• The EU has opened a probe into French state aid given to EDF’s nuclear energy expansion, according to Reuters.
• EurActiv: “Invest in railways to cut fossil-fuel dependence, industry lobby tells Brussels.”

Many frontpages lead with the news that US president Donald Trump has told the UK to “go get your own oil” as his administration mocked the Royal Navy for not sending any warships to reopen the strait of Hormuz. A frontpage story in the Times says “Trump blamed looming jet fuel shortages in Britain on Sir Keir Starmer’s unwillingness to support the war and urged the UK to seize oil from the Middle East directly”. According to the newspaper, he posted on Truth Social saying: “I have a suggestion for you: Number 1, buy from the US, we have plenty, and Number 2, build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT.” The story also makes the frontpages of the Guardian and the Daily Mail. The Times reports that oil prices have recorded their biggest monthly gain in history amid the war.

Elsewhere, the Guardian reports that “by attacking Iran and threatening to seize its oil while taking extraordinary measures to block clean energy back in the US, Trump has inadvertently highlighted the dangerous volatility of the fossil fuel era”. It continues: “Iran’s blockade of the strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world’s oil is normally transported, has threatened economies around the world as energy costs have spiked, with consumers globally paying out more than $100bn extra to fossil fuel companies since the conflict began last month. In the US, the average national cost of gasoline has risen to nearly $4 a gallon.” The article quotes Alice Hill, an energy and environment expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, saying: “It’s quite a bet the president has made on fossil fuels and as of today it isn’t going so well. This is a very stark reminder that the green transition will have huge benefits for the long-term security of the nation. Countries that have invested in clean energy like solar and wind will be better placed and will weather this.” BBC News is among outlets reporting that a US federal “god squad” has voted to exempt oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from a decades-old law to protect endangered species.

MORE ON ENERGY CRISIS

• Asian nations are facing the largest hit from the energy crisis, with a sharp fall in crude shipments and few alternatives, global maritime analytics firm Kpler tells Agence France-Presse.
• Guardian: “Asia ramps up use of dirty fuels to cover energy shortfall triggered by Iran war.”
• Financial Times: “‘Desperate’ Asia turns to Russian oil amid Iran energy shock.”
• Japan and Indonesia are to boost energy cooperation in light of the war, says the Washington Post.
• A major Vietnamese energy company has told its government it wants to “ditch ​a plan to build the country’s largest LNG-fired power plant and embark on a renewable energy project instead, as ‌the Iran war has boosted the risk of the fuel becoming too expensive”, says Reuters.
• Bloomberg: “South Africa to raise gasoline price by most since at least 2008.”

Most of India is “forecast to experience higher than normal heatwave days through June, raising the risk of power shortages as the [country] grapples with energy strains worsened by the Middle East conflict”, reports Bloomberg. It adds that meteorological authorities predict temperatures “will likely be above normal” across the country until June, as the government “expects a summer surge in electricity demand”. However, the outlet continues, “slower growth in energy storage capacity, coupled with gas shortages linked to the war, will leave India heavily reliant on coal and hydropower, as well as less predictable wind generation”. In his Bloomberg column, Andy Mukherjee warns that “India’s cooking-gas shortage is turning serious” as the war enters its second month and “may permanently shift how the world’s most-populous nation consumes energy”. If 10% of India’s households shift to electric cooking and “70% cook dinner simultaneously, the extra 28-gigawatt (GW) demand equals nearly a tenth of the summer peak load”, Mukherjee estimates.

Meanwhile, in a Carbon Copy comment, Aarti Khosla observes that “[t]iming, in climate diplomacy, is everything” and that India’s new climate pledge “may be the most important climate signal of the year”. In the Economic Times, Urmi Goswami observes that, while targets set by India’s new Paris pledge “do not compare well to its past ambition and record”, it sends a “clear message…to those who see climate action as unnecessary, green and clean energy as a hoax, and climate change as a long con”. Goswami adds that India has “come to terms with its disappointment at [COP29 in] Baku and is ready to get off the bench”, but the “[h]ard work of bringing about policy and regulatory changes to accelerate electrification and decarbonisation must” be a priority. 

MORE ON INDIA

• India’s petroleum regulatory board says the country’s crude oil reserves “can cater for only about 20-40 days and cannot be built to last for several months”, ANI reports.
• India’s ​diesel exports to southeast Asia “surged to the highest in more than seven years in ‌March” as “refiners cashed in on higher profits in Asia”, according to Reuters analysis. 
• A Moneycontrol comment by Anuj Gupta argues that the country’s decisions to “go slow on gas, relax excessive pollution-control timelines and delay shutting older coal plants are not symbols of hesitation but examples of resilience planning.”
• Down to Earth reports that, in rural India, “access alone does not define energy security”, shaped “more by household income, infrastructure gaps and proximity to natural resources”.

UK household energy prices are poised to surge by 18% in July, adding £288 to a typical annual bill as the war on Iran pushes up the cost of gas, reports the Times. The latest forecast for the energy price cap from the consultancy Cornwall Insight is £44 a year lower than it had predicted on 19 March, as wholesale prices had steadied somewhat because of hopes of a ceasefire, says the Times. It comes as chancellor Rachel Reeves tells BBC News that any government help with energy bills will be directed by household income and may not come until the autumn. The Independent reports that Reeves has been urged to “follow Europe” and introduce new measures to protect people from spiralling energy costs. Bloomberg reports that the government has paused a plan to write off £500m in unpaid household energy bills.

Elsewhere, the Times reports on a call from the consultancy Wood Mackenzie for the UK to increase its fossil-fuel production to reduce reliance on the US in future. The Times says: “Domestic production would not only be more reliable, given ‘the risks of reliance on a single country’ for imports, but also cheaper and better for the environment than shipping super-chilled LNG across the Atlantic, Wood Mackenzie argues.” The Times also has a news story on how the developer of the yet-to-be-consented Jackdaw gasfield project thinks that it could “generate significant sums for the Treasury, making Britain less reliant on costly and more environmentally damaging foreign imports as soon as October”. [See Carbon Brief’s factcheck on common misleading claims about the North Sea, including on the environmental impact of drilling and the idea that new projects would create large amounts of tax revenue.] 

MORE ON UK

• Byline Times: “Kemi Badenoch campaigns for North Sea drilling at company owned by oil and gas executive who donated £250,000 to the Conservatives.”
• Daily Express: “Hundreds of UK plants and animals facing extinction due to ‘spiralling decline’.”
• The climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph speaks to some people in Ed Miliband’s consistency that it claims are “enraged by his net-zero crusade”.

China’s state oil and gas firms are curbing “aggressive” expansion amid market turbulence while safeguarding long-term energy security, reports Bloomberg. The outlet adds that the country’s “big three producers” all reported a decline in profits last year amid weakening oil demand and a “faster green transition”. PetroChina, the largest oil and gas producer in Asia, said it is “operating overall as normal”, with around 10% of its oil and gas supplies delivered via the Strait of Hormuz, reports Reuters. Another Reuters report cites unnamed sources saying China will extend its refined fuel export ban into April, with possible small exemptions for countries in the region that have requested help. However, China has yet to “publicly acknowledge” its export bans, according to a third Reuters article. Yi Huan, a macroeconomist at Huatai Securities, writes in financial news outlet Caixin that China’s “green-tech” push provides a “built-in buffer” amid the war in the Middle East.

MORE ON CHINA

• China’s steel sector can “restore profitability” by increasing its use of electric-arc furnace steelmaking to 20% by 2030, reports Bloomberg, citing the CREA.
• Xinhua says achieving carbon peaking on schedule requires improving incremental carbon sinks in ecosystems over the next five years.
• CailianPress reports China is willing to deepen cooperation with Germany in key areas and expand cooperation in green industry investment, said the NDRC.
• Pete Hoekstra, the US ambassador to Canada, has said the US will not allow Chinese EVs to enter its market from Canada, reports Bloomberg.
• China issued a notice to “comprehensively” address “involution” competition in China’s “new three” sectors, reports International Energy Net.

Daily Telegraph international business editor Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writes on the risk of “an even bigger oil shock” as the Iran war continues. He says: “The world has lost over a 10th of its daily oil supply, along with critical volumes of jet fuel, diesel and refined petroleum products. Now prepare for loss of the next 10th, hitting just as all the short-term fixes are exhausted. This is not a remote tail risk. It is an all-too-plausible outcome as Donald Trump concentrates the 82nd Airborne Division and US marines to ‘take the oil’ on Iran’s Kharg Island.”

Elsewhere, an editorial in the Times urges the government to boost fossil-fuel production in the North Sea, describing it as a “bird in the hand”. It continues: “Given that natural gas will remain essential for energy supply stability for the foreseeable future, and given that global political instability appears to be increasing, it is logical for the UK to maximise its remaining hydrocarbon ­assets.” The Times also gives a column to an oil-and-gas company executive who talks up the benefits of his Jackdaw gasfield project, which is currently awaiting consent from the government. Elsewhere, an editorial in the Sun urges the government to cut fuel duty in response to the energy crisis, while a Daily Mail editorial asks: “Where is the PM’s plan to protect families?”

MORE COMMENT

• The Economist: “The energy shock brings coal back into fashion.”
• The i newspaper has a column on how £400 solar panels could “change the whole of” the UK.

This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Daisy Dunne, with contributions from Henry Zhang, Anika Patel and Aruna Chandrasekhar. It was edited by Robert McSweeney and Leo Hickman.

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