Fossil fuel dependency leads to subservience, says UN Climate Chief

• The disruption of global energy supplies is being felt worldwide, the UN’s top climate change official warned, as conflict in the Middle East drives oil and gas prices sharply higher.

• Speaking at the 2026 Green Growth Summit in Brussels, Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said the volatility underscored the strategic value of renewable energy.

• On February 28, the US and Israel launched a devastating aerial campaign against Iran, ostensibly targeting military sites and nuclear facilities. 

• Residential areas, multiple oil depots and a desalination plant have been struck, damaged and destroyed.

• Oil prices continue to hover above $100 a barrel, while shipping disruptions and temporary flight suspensions are affecting travel and supply chains. 

What are fossil fuels?

• Fossil energy sources, including oil, coal and natural gas, are non-renewable resources that formed when pre-historic plants and animals died and were gradually buried by layers of rock. 

• Over millions of years, different types of fossil fuels formed, depending on what combination of organic matter was present, how long it was buried and what temperature and pressure conditions existed as time passed.

• Today, fossil fuel industries drill or mine for these energy sources, burn them to produce electricity, or refine them for use as fuel for heating or transportation. 

• Fossil fuels are carbon-based and their combustion results in the release of carbon into the Earth’s atmosphere. 

• Over the past 20 years, nearly three-fourths of human-caused emissions came from the burning of fossil fuels.

• When fossil fuels are burned, they release nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere, which contribute to the formation of smog and acid rain. The most common nitrogen-related compounds emitted into the air by human activities are collectively referred to as nitrogen oxides.

• Energy from fossil fuels has helped to deliver jobs, revenue, and economic growth around the world. Consequently, most governments view coal, oil, and gas as sources of geopolitical power, energy security, and development. 

Energy price spikes highlight value of renewables

• Fossil fuel dependency is ripping away national security and sovereignty and replacing it with subservience and rising costs, he said.

• The turmoil in the Middle East makes it evident that we are facing a global energy system largely tied to fossil fuels, where supply is concentrated in a few regions and every conflict risks sending shockwaves through the global economy, particularly to the most vulnerable people.

• The impact of faltering energy supplies is being felt around the world.

• For decades, dependence on fossil fuels meant dependence on volatility. 

• Fossil fuel dependency means economies, household budgets, and business bottom lines at the mercy of geopolitical shocks and price volatility in a chaotic world.

• Stiell pointed out that electricity prices are spiralling and inflation will likely return.

• Renewables turn the tables.

• The fastest path to energy security, economic security, and national security is clear: speed up a just transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy.

• Sunlight doesn’t depend on narrow and vulnerable shipping straits.

• Wind blows without massive taxpayer-funded naval escorts.

• Renewable energy allows countries to insulate themselves from global turmoil, and to side-step might-is-right politics.

• Renewable energy also delivers on people’s top priorities across the continent: security, well-paid jobs, better health, and relief from rising living costs.

• In 2025, renewables overtook coal as the world’s top electricity source, and over $2 trillion was invested in clean energy, double that of fossil fuels.

• Renewables are now cheaper, safer and faster-to-market, making them the obvious pathway to energy security and sovereignty, noted Simon Stiell.