Russian aggression is a big blow for the world’s “net zero” ambitions

Switching the world economy over from fossil fuels to green alternatives was always going to be a challenge. It just got a lot harder. Simon Wilson reports

Putin
Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression has further complicated the green transition
(Image credit: © MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)

Western nations are scrambling to cut exposure to Russian energy, and a rapid shift to green energy is looking ever more like a national security issue.

Russia’s war on Ukraine “should motivate us to accelerate our transition to a clean energy future”, tweeted US president Joe Biden on Wednesday. “To protect our economy over the long term, we need to become energy independent” – and clean energy “means tyrants like Putin won’t be able to use fossil fuels as a weapon”. Optimistic climate campaigners foresee a win-win: what could be better than starving the Putin war machine of funds while also saving the planet?

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up
Explore More

Simon Wilson’s first career was in book publishing, as an economics editor at Routledge, and as a publisher of non-fiction at Random House, specialising in popular business and management books. While there, he published Customers.com, a bestselling classic of the early days of e-commerce, and The Money or Your Life: Reuniting Work and Joy, an inspirational book that helped inspire its publisher towards a post-corporate, portfolio life.   

Since 2001, he has been a writer for MoneyWeek, a financial copywriter, and a long-time contributing editor at The Week. Simon also works as an actor and corporate trainer; current and past clients include investment banks, the Bank of England, the UK government, several Magic Circle law firms and all of the Big Four accountancy firms. He has a degree in languages (German and Spanish) and social and political sciences from the University of Cambridge.