What the energy crisis reveals about how we power world

In a matter of weeks, energy supply shocks sent oil prices up by 30 per cent, fuel costs surged to record highs, and the ripple effects hit everything from inflation and global growth to household bills. The International Monetary Fund has warned of one of the sharpest six-month economic downturns in the Middle East since the 2008 financial crisis. But the larger question is not just what happened. It is whether it had to be this bad. Could this crisis have been less severe if more countries had invested earlier in renewables and built a more distributed energy system? That's what host Salim A Essaid explores in this episode of Business Extra, recorded from Washington. Salim spoke to Robbie Orvis, senior director of modelling and analysis at energy policy think tank Energy Innovation. Mr Orvis examines whether the scale of this crisis will finally prompt a more durable global shift in clean energy investment, and what that shift might look like over the next six to 12 months. Salim also spoke to Mary Rose de Valladares, clean energy expert and non-executive director at Atome, one of the world's first green fertiliser producers, who traces why the transition to distributed renewables has moved in cycles since the 1970s and where that process genuinely stands today.

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What the energy crisis reveals about how we power world is an episode from Business Extra by The National News.

This episode is 31:09 long.

This episode was published on Apr 22, 2026.

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