The Pandemic we have experienced recently and the Russia-Ukraine war that followed, almost short-circuited the market system that regulates international energy supply. According to experts, a problem that arises anywhere in this integrated global system is immediately felt as an energy crisis in all regions of the world.
The current global energy crisis is not just a crisis related to gas and oil. This crisis emerges as a crisis that also increases food transportation and production costs, and then as the high product prices that the final consumer (household) in the last link of the chain has to experience.
In addition, the extreme temperatures caused by the climate crisis are also increasing the demand for indoor cooling systems and food refrigeration. Therefore, this also leads to more energy consumption. On the one hand, with this high energy consumption based by fossil fuels, global warming is increasing, while global warming is also increasing energy consumption sourced by fossil fuels. A perfect vicious circle…
The energy crisis due to the OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) boycott in the 1970s was an oil crisis, which affected the United States and European countries the most. After this crisis, we have seen that two issues have been raised against possible crises in the future. One is saving on oil consumed in vehicles by increasing efficiency in energy use, and the second is the development of renewable energy technologies and increasing investments in this area.
It is obvious that such crises create a great opportunity for renewable energy. For example, countries such as France are planning to increase wind energy production, while countries such as South Africa and China are encouraging households to install solar panels on the roof of their homes. Thus, it is aimed to reduce fossil fuel-based energy consumption.
We note that in the 1990s, the share of solar energy, one of the renewable energy sources, which was at zero level, increased to 4% in 2020, and wind energy increased to 6.7%. In particular, we see that China, which is accelerating its efforts on “clean, renewable” energy today, controls 80% of the solar energy supply chain and plans to increase this ratio to 95% by 2024.
Prof Tatiana Mitrova, an energy economist, said: “There is an unpleasant truth that people do not want to accept; There has been almost an atmosphere of war in the energy and food markets. In a war environment, states cannot leave the supply of strategic goods such as energy and food in the hands of the markets, they have to take it on themselves”.
Thus, we are witnessing that the general principle of “Markets regulate society best” has started to change since the 1980s, and that regulations are no longer made by the market, but with crises.
We hope that this negative process will bring new opportunities to combat climate change by encouraging and contributing to sustainable, clean and renewable energy transformation.
In our next issue, we will have an issue focus on alternative sources that will minimize the environmental impact for the responsible and sustainable nutrition of the world. In this area, where new solutions are needed, we will discuss the issue of “Alternative Protein Sources in Animal Nutrition”.
*This month’s editorial article was written by my dear colleague and publisher Muhammed Akatay. I would like to thank him for this valuable contribution and wish you a pleasant reading.
See you in the next issue…
