I suppose the main problem with renewables is that they are capital intensive and require a long time to ramp up. The Ukraine war has created a short term problem and politicians can't be expected to allow old people die of hypothermia or industry requiring carbon feedstocks to collapse.

So some prolongation of existing carbon based energy production is unavoidable in the short term. The key thing is to ensure that a short term fix doesn't become the long term solution.

Part of the solution has to be the increased price of carbon fuels themselves - they have made renewables much more price competitive and profitable. Hopefully that will lead to much greater investment and a more rapid transition to renewables.

In the meantime, the best we can do is ensure that carbon fuels aren't subsidised while capital is made available for as rapid a roll-out of renewables as possible.

Longer term that will be extremely damaging to the Russian economy, but unfortunately not immediately enough to encourage them to stop the war.

Index of Frank's Diaries