5th May 2026 03:05
(Alliance News) - European leaders risk "falling behind" globally unless they change their energy strategy to prioritise supply and affordability, Tony Blair has warned.
In a foreword to a new report which also argues for Britain and the EU to move towards a "common market framework", the former Labour prime minister said decarbonisation was "essential" but "cannot be pursued in isolation."
In their introduction to the paper by the Tony Blair Institute, Blair and former Italian premier Matteo Renzi said the countries that succeed will be the ones that can deliver "abundant, secure and affordable energy at scale".
They pointed to the world's largest emitters, China, the US and India, arguing these nations had geared their energy policy toward ensuring supply, expanding grids and securing domestic capacity at speed.
The two former leaders said: "Europe has led the world in climate ambition and made real progress in reducing emissions. That achievement matters.
"But the global centre of gravity has shifted.
"The future of the energy system will be determined in economies where demand is rising rapidly—and where the overriding priority is to ensure that supply keeps pace."
They said Europe had the "capabilities to lead in this next phase" but warned doing so would require "clearer narrative, stronger political direction and a renewed focus on delivery".
"Unless Europe aligns its strategy with that reality, it risks falling behind those already shaping the energy systems, and the economic order, of the future," Blair and Renzi said.
After a row erupted last spring over Blair arguing that limiting fossil fuels in the short term was "doomed to fail," the foreword takes care not to explicitly criticise net-zero policy.
It insists "this is not an argument for weakening climate ambition" but one for "embedding it within a more effective strategy – one that recognises that clean energy succeeds when it helps deliver abundant and affordable power."
However, the report, authored by TBI senior policy adviser Tone Lanengen, singles out decisions of the UK and Denmark to phase out fossil fuel production as having made the region "more exposed to international markets in increasingly unstable times."
Citing the move among the "mistakes" made in Europe's energy approach, the paper says: "Fossil fuel was deprioritised while dependence remained high.
"Europe's long-standing reliance on Russian fossil fuels has now been slowly replaced by dependence on Middle Eastern and American supplies.
"The decisions of key producers like Denmark and the UK to phase out fossil-fuel production have made the region more exposed to international markets in increasingly unstable times."
The report also recommends that the UK and EU move towards a "common market" relationship in the long-term, arguing that Britain should also be allowed to "opt in" to a continental "system planner" aimed at coordinating Europe's electricity sector.
It says: "In the long term, the UK EU relationship must converge towards a common-market framework – not for political reasons, but because the physical realities of Europe's interconnected energy systems leave no alternative."
A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: "Net zero is the economic opportunity of the 21st century, with clean power being the route to energy sovereignty, lower bills for good and thousands of good jobs in our communities.
"The lesson of yet another fossil fuel crisis is the UK needs to get off the fossil fuel rollercoaster and onto clean homegrown power we control.
"We are driving further and faster for clean homegrown power to bring down bills for good – including decisive action to break the influence of gas on electricity prices."
source: PA
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