Will new power crisis be a mere blip or threaten climate goals?

A PERFECT storm of weather-related events and production woes coupled with policy oversights have sent natural gas prices on a tear lately on the back of a huge supply-demand gap. The mismatch is further exacerbated as economic activities the world over rebound from pandemic-led disruptions.

As a result, coal demand has also surged, as evinced by the sharp increase in benchmark prices recently. In fact, current spot prices for both gas and coal, which drive nearly half of the world's energy consumption, are at multi-year or record highs. Oil prices too are on a roll.

In the bigger scheme of things, this could pose a setback of sorts for the world's green energy transition and make it tough for hard-hit countries facing an energy crunch to stay the course on meeting climate goals.