By Bjorn Lomborg
The rich
world’s fossil fuel hypocrisy is on full display in its response to the global
energy crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While the wealthy G7
countries admonish the world’s poor to use only renewables because of climate
concerns, Europe and the United States are going begging for Arab nations to
expand oil production. Germany is reopening coal power plants, while Spain and
Italy are ramping up African gas production. So many European countries have
asked Botswana to mine more coal that the country will have to triple its
exports.
Yet, the rich are choking off funding for any new fossil fuels in the developing world. Most of the world’s poorest four billion people have no meaningful energy access, so the rich blithely tell them to ‘leapfrog’ from no energy to a green nirvana of solar panels and wind turbines.