NATO: Kremlin-backed actors’ disinformation seeks to derail green…

Commenting on NATO’s recently published 2024 Climate Change and Security Impact Assessment Report, which found that “Kremlin-backed actors have been found to be pushing climate change denialism across the Alliance, all while actively attempting to derail climate change mitigation policies and renewable energy investments” [1], Jess Ralston, Head of Energy at the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), said:

“It’s clearly in Putin’s interest to keep Europe hooked on gas which means that efforts to transition away, using renewables and electric heat pumps that replace gas boilers, are a threat to him.

“That NATO has found evidence of propaganda campaigns against the green energy transition in Europe highlights the worrying influence of foreign actors on debates of national importance in democratic countries. There is an unfortunate alignment with what an energy minister in the last government said were UK-based ‘campaigns of misinformation’ around clean technology in the UK. [2]

“Plans to accelerate renewables deployment diminish Putin’s sway over us via the gas market. More drilling in the North Sea would not insulate us from volatile market prices and would make at best marginal gains for domestic energy production compared to the much more significant role wind and solar can play in reducing foreign energy dependence. A debate on the UK’s energy security that centres on North Sea oil and gas is almost entirely missing the point.

“With North Sea oil and gas output set to decline irrespective of more drilling, unless renewables are rapidly deployed the UK becomes more dependent on foreign energy. Unless we transition from gas boilers to electric heat pumps, we become ever more reliant on foreign powers to heat our homes. That is the simple truth.”

“Efforts by some to point to the cost of ‘green levies’ instead of the volatile gas price that has actually been driving up energy bills since the Russian invasion of Ukraine would likely have been helpful to the Kremlin-backed narrative, refocusing attention away from the actual problem and so the real solutions. Insulating homes, building out British renewables and switching to electric heat pumps together mean as a country we are less dependent on gas and so less vulnerable to foreign regimes.”

Previous ECIU analysis has found that delays to offshore wind mean the UK could miss out on twenty-two times more homegrown electricity than could be generated by gas from new North Sea licences [3].

ECIU has calculated that the UK has spent at least an extra £75bn on gas since the start of the crisis [4]. The International Monetary Fund has said that Britain was the worst hit country in Western Europe because of an over-reliance on gas [5].

The NATO report states: “Denial of anthropogenic climate change persists in Russia largely due to the entangled ties between the fossil fuel industry and political power, and the country’s ongoing dependence on fossil fuels as a dominant source of government revenue.”

The report also states: “According to NATO’s Information Environment Assessment for the period May 2022 to May 2024, Russia was found to be the main driver of hostile communications in online conversations about the green energy transition on social media and web news media.”

ENDS

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