A new global energy order? The world contemplates the meaning of the EU's embargo on Russian oil imports

Abstract

It is too early to clearly understand what the European Union’s embargo on most Russian oil imports as well as Russian cuts in delivery of natural gas to Europe will mean in the long term, although several experts have predicted that the energy crisis brought about by Russia’s war in Ukraine ‘could become the worst in half a century’. However, it is not too early to consider how these changes may affect the global energy order in the shorter term. At a minimum, three things seem nearly certain: (1) the world may be on the precipice of a new energy order; (2) the EU will quicken the pace of transitioning to clean energy; and (3) the EU, and the world more generally, will burn more – not less – fossil fuel in the months ahead.