Opinion by Mathew Carr

The climate crisis is bad enough, especially if you live in Pakistan or Bangladesh, where thousands are dying.

Throw in a deadly war in Europe, and this below is what you get.

Reckless greed that has killed thousands more.

Check out this bulldust, the parlous and unfair state of global energy-market prices:

This chart is from BP’s 2022 results published yesterday, but this story not about BP. It’s about men and women running countries and deliberately choosing market structures that are not only messing us up … but these people, mainly men to be sure, know these market structures are corrupt.

What it shows is how deeply unfair the global energy market structure is.

What the heck is the G20 for? Or the UNFCCC? Market structures are a choice, and there’s no need to keep choosing these stupid structures year after year after year after year.

Not only are the US’s 300 million or so people (out of about 8 billion) most responsible for the global climate crisis, but they are killing the lovely, delicate climate, on the cheap.

They mostly don’t make their polluters pay for the damage. It’s astonishing because it’s 30 years since the US effectively promised to do so in the UNFCCC.

Why the heck should the “rest of the world”, having suffered the US climate crisis, pay 10 percent more for their dangerous fossil fuels, than America itself does?

That’s $67 on average in 2022 vs $61 per barrel of oil equivalent in the US.

And then there’s Europe. For its climate leadership, it “gets to” pay way more than double the rest of the world.

The Russia-Ukraine war was started by Russia (but it was also stoked by US-led NATO, don’t forget) and it has been a complete disaster for European consumers.

Except for this:

Carbon prices and other fuel taxes are helping European taxpayers pay for stuff, it has to be said. The help extends to speeding its climate transition away from the crap market structure.

It’s puzzling why world leaders (again, mainly men) let these bad (but deliberate) choices run and run and run.

Or maybe it’s not so puzzling.

It’s simply reckless, deadly greed.

It’s corruption.

These people need to resign their positions and not stand again for high office.

I republished this story, removing the swearing