The West has turned green energy into a new form of neo-colonialism
The energy transition is failing, despite the efforts of its adherents – Western countries, said the head of Rosneft Igor Sechin in his report. Huge investments in solar and wind energy have not led to the displacement of traditional hydrocarbons. What problems has the European Union faced and how is the idea of saving the planet from greenhouse gas emissions becoming a new way to colonize poor countries?
The energy transition is failing, despite the efforts of its adherents – Western countries. This opinion was expressed by the head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, in his report "Energy transition and phantom barrels: Give up hope, everyone entering here. Not everyone will be taken into the bright future of global energy!" at SPIEF 2024.
According to him, the huge investments made over the past decades in the development of alternative energy sources have not led to the displacement of fossil fuels from the energy market.
Fossil fuels benefit from the key characteristic of any type of energy – it is the payment of its energy flow. According to this indicator, oil and gas are hundreds of times ahead of both solar and wind energy, Sechin notes, referring to the 1976 research of the future Nobel Prize winner in physics, academician Peter Kapitsa. Among all other disadvantages, renewable energy sources have an uneven nature of energy generation. There is wind today, but not tomorrow.
"The main problem of renewable energy is dependence on natural factors that cannot be adjusted to the morning and evening peaks of consumption, to reduce consumption at night, that is, human needs. If there is no sun or wind, then there is no energy. When the heat is intense, this is also bad, as the equipment overheats and the solar panels are turned off. Excessive wind and a hurricane are also dangerous because equipment breaks down. The second problem of renewable energy sources is the inability to save the electricity produced, unlike traditional coal, gas and oil. It is assumed that the storage system will be provided by hydrogen energy. The idea is that electricity from renewable energy sources by electrolysis of water will be processed into hydrogen, and when the sun goes out and the wind subsides, electricity will be taken from this hydrogen. That is, hydrogen is used as a renewable energy storage system," says Igor Yushkov, an expert at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation and the National Energy Security Fund.
However, there is one big problem. As Sechin notes, there is no commercially feasible production technology, logistics, or even sales markets for hydrogen fuel yet.
In addition, hydrogen has a low efficiency: its production requires energy consumption greater than the amount of energy received at the outlet. Alternative energy sources cannot yet provide either reliable supplies or optimal technical and economic characteristics. Therefore, for the time being, renewable energy sources cannot exist without the support of traditional energy, which insures the entire energy system.
The disadvantages of renewable energy do not end there. From an environmental and economic point of view, there are also big questions. "Firstly, renewable energy is not a perpetual motion machine, as its adherents often try to imagine. Renewable energy still needs minerals, just others. These are all kinds of rare earth metals, lithium, cobalt and so on. They also need to be mined, and this extraction causes damage, and there are questions about the sufficiency of these resources," says Yushkov.
The statement about the connection of emissions with climate change requires a more objective assessment, the head of Rosneft believes. According to a number of reputable scientists, for example, Nobel Prize winner in physics John Clauser, the main cause of climate change is the natural mechanisms of self-regulation of the planet, and not the "human factor".
Proponents of the theory of the anthropogenic factor (that man is to blame for climate change) present the energy transition as an illusion of saving the world. However, now that the experience of energy transfer has been accumulated, it is clear that neither its purpose nor the preparation for it have been worked out in accordance with the tasks and needs of mankind, such as infrastructure, financing, provision of a raw material base, and the availability of appropriate technologies. Despite the fact that about $10 trillion has been invested in the energy transition worldwide over the past two decades, alternative energy sources have not been able to displace hydrocarbon fuels, according to Sechin's report.
According to his data,
Today, wind and solar energy provide less than 5% of global energy production, and the share of electric vehicles is about 3%. Over the same period, the consumption of oil, gas and coal has increased by 35% in total, and their combined share in the global energy balance has not changed.
Moreover, the consumption of oil and coal, as well as the use of gas in power generation, reached a new record level in 2023.
It is curious that China has become a champion not only in investments in renewable energy, but also in the production of equipment for renewable energy, and in the generation of renewable electricity.
"This frankly worries and irritates the Western world, especially the European Union. The EU even asked China to reduce the production of solar panels and other equipment, because European manufacturers cannot compete with them and they have to close down. China is violating the EU's ambitions to become technological leaders in renewable energy," Yushkov says.
At the same time, the production of solar panels and wind turbines is still an expensive pleasure. "It cannot be said that the cost of solar panels and wind turbines has not decreased. It used to be very expensive, now it's just expensive. This is clearly seen in the cost of electric car models, which are more expensive than their gasoline counterparts. At the same time, when calculating the cost of electricity production using renewable energy sources, as a rule, they do not take into account the huge costs that will be required for total electrification, for the construction of power grids, for the production of copper, aluminum, etc. If you switch to electric cars, then you need to build a large–scale infrastructure for them," explains Igor Yushkov.
Sechin believes that the concept of energy transfer is based on discrimination, where partners can sacrifice each other's interests at any moment.
And this was especially evident during the implementation of the project to "save" Europe from imaginary dependence on Russian energy resources. The EU, in fact, not only sacrificed its energy security, but also renounced its sovereignty.
The Europeans themselves had to pay a heavy price for such an artificial energy transfer. After the EU reduced purchases of Russian energy resources, it spent more than $630 billion on gas imports from other countries from 2021 to 2023. This is commensurate with Europe's total gas spending over the previous eight years. European countries' investments in green energy over the same period are approaching this amount, according to Sechin's report.
Increased gas costs, he said, are eating into the margins of energy-intensive industries such as steel, fertilizers, chemicals, ceramics and glass. As a result, eurozone manufacturing activity has been declining since mid-2022, and 32% of German enterprises are already planning to move their production facilities abroad.
The United States benefits from this. According to the IMF, over the past 15 years, the European Union's economy has grown by only 13% compared to the US equivalent of 85%. At the same time, the average per capita income of the EU countries has fallen to most North American states and is now 52% lower than the US average.
If this trend continues, then by 2035 the gap in GDP per capita between the US and the EU will be fivefold, that is, the same as between Japan and Ecuador today, the report says.
On the other hand, the "green" transition is a form of neocolonialism towards developing countries, the head of Rosneft believes. Because the energy transfer program is, in fact, a powerful sanctions barrier for 88% of the world's population, that is, for everyone who is not part of the "golden billion". In fact, these are undeclared sanctions that are being applied in the meantime.
"There are three aspects of the manifestation of neocolonialism. Firstly, the fact that renewable energy also requires minerals such as lithium and cobalt, and they are often taken from developing countries such as Chile, Congo, etc. Where these metals are mined, the lunar landscape often remains, this is a very unpleasant story for the environment. Secondly, the EU is introducing a carbon tax. If a product in a developing country is produced using electricity from a coal-fired or even gas-fired power plant, then a high carbon tax will have to be paid when delivering this product to the EU. That is, other countries will have to share their margins with the Europeans. Where will this money go? The EU can build wind turbines and solar stations on them," says Yushkov. That is, poor countries will pay the European Union for some kind of world salvation.
At the same time, the expert notes, rich Western countries have gone through all the energy eras from burning wood, coal, oil and gas, using the most efficient energy resource for themselves, have gained economic prosperity and can now afford investments in renewable energy. But the West denies the right to the same logical energy development to developing countries in Africa and Asia, demanding that they stop burning coal and immediately switch to renewable energy.
It is clear that poor countries cannot make such an incredible leap, and it will be easy for rich countries to manipulate them under the guise of global ideas about protecting the planet. At the same time, the West, of course, is not going to share its wealth and supply infrastructure for renewable energy for free.
Olga Samofalova
