President Emmanuel Macron has warned that an energy crisis threatens the world’s post-pandemic recovery, calling for leaders at a G20 summit in Rome this weekend to work together to stabilize supplies.
In an interview, the French president also urged bigger financial commitments towards the fight against global warming on the eve of the COP26 climate summit in Scotland, and for particular attention to be paid to a deal to phase out coal power.
The G20 needed to coordinate between energy producers and consuming countries to prevent a supply breakdown this winter, which risked “extreme tensions both economically and socially”, Macron said.
“In the coming weeks and months, we need to get better visibility and stability on prices so the tension on the energy prices doesn’t generate uncertainties, and undermine the global economic recovery, ” he told the Financial Times in the Elysée Palace. “What we expect is to have co-ordination to avoid soaring prices.”
Global energy costs have surged this year, disrupting the industry and hitting consumers with higher prices. Eurozone inflation surged in October to a 13year-high of 4.1 percent, according to a flash estimate published by the EU’s statistics arm on Friday.
“I don’t think we’re going to be able to lower prices given tensions on the demand side,” Macron said. “But what we need to avoid is to have a break in supply [and further] increases in prices, particularly as we’re moving into the winter period for the northern hemisphere.”