"With oil costing more than $100 a barrel, and Russia’s war in Ukraine underscoring the risk of relying on fossil fuel, it would seem like a great time to speed up the transition away from the polluting fuel. The reality isn’t so simple.

Public support for climate action is higher than ever in most countries, but that doesn’t ease the economic pain when everything from food to transport gets more costly. “This is an unfortunate downside of the economy we’ve got that runs on fossil fuels,” said Charlie Donovan, a visiting professor of finance at University of Washington.

That reliance makes any imbalance between supply and demand a source of price volatility, including the current spike. In 2020, oil giants drastically pulled back on investments to increase production on the assumption that Covid-19 lockdowns would depress demand for their product. But the quick rollout of vaccines in developed nations led to a faster-than-expected recovery and a shortfall in supply."

Akshat Rathi and Will Mathis report for Bloomberg Green March 2, 2022. [2]