Sri Lanka has an almost perfect ESG rating of 98.1 out of 100, according to WorldEconomics, but the country declared bankruptcy last week when thousands of angry Sri Lankans stormed the presidential palace without enough fuel and food supplies, forcing the president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who has fled Sri Lanka, has stepped down.
If the current global energy supply continues to deteriorate, Sri Lanka could finally herald even bigger events in the rest of the world in the months and years to come, ironically in the ESG rankings, many of the countries with the highest scores are developing countries with the highest risk of famine , such as Haiti with an ESG score of 99, and the nutrient-rich United States far behind with a slightly higher score of 58.
People are most worried about the immediate crisis
European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans said that there is not enough energy supply in the coming winter, which is the reality faced by European countries, so it is hoped that the leaders of various countries will work hard to strengthen the supply and transmission of fossil fuel energy in the short term. systems in an attempt to prevent disasters from happening.
Timmermans pointed out that if European leaders fail to adequately address the looming winter energy crisis, which could lead to greater social and economic disruption, the greatest concern is the immediate crisis, not the long-term crisis, which if not addressed The immediate crisis, the future will certainly deviate from the track of the long-term crisis.
Revisiting the culprits of soaring oil prices
US President Biden published an op-ed in the “Washington Post” on the 10th, describing his upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia in 700 words, but the word “oil” did not appear, although it is known that the main motive of the trip was to ask Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Salman is producing more crude to replenish undersupplied global markets.
Biden’s article did implicitly refer to Middle East oil in one sentence, saying that “its resources are critical to mitigating the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war on global energy supplies.” But the world’s largest oil producer is not Saudi Arabia, but the United States, and I have never heard anyone make any similar statements about the importance of the United States in maintaining global oil supplies, and the importance of abundant oil to maintain international stability.
Affected by the new crown epidemic, the Russian-Ukrainian war, OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) production cuts, and the growing energy crisis in Europe, mainly due to the chronically undersupplied international crude oil market, but another key reason is that the United States ranks first in the world supplier, but the U.S. oil industry is still less than about 1 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil compared to its peak levels in 2018 and 2019.
to the brink of starvation
Growing fuel shortages, supply chain disruptions, and inevitable inflation are creating food shortages that expose hundreds of millions of people in developing countries around the world to the very real threat of starvation, said Beasley, head of the UN World Food Programme (WFP). David Beasley reported last week about it.
Beasley said that there are currently 345 million people in the world who are dying from hunger, an increase of 24% from 276 million at the beginning of the year, and twice the 135 million before the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2020, mainly because of insufficient energy and food shortages. The impact of this increase is expected to rise even higher in the coming months, with 50 million people in 45 countries just one step away from famine.
The food shortage was a result of the government prioritizing achieving climate and ESG targets over food production, and one reason for the collapse of the Sri Lankan government was precisely because the authorities ordered farmers to switch from chemical to organic fertilizers in April 2021, resulting in a significant reduction in crops output, although the Sri Lankan government realized the seriousness and tried to turn things around in November 2021, but it was too late.
The Dutch government has an ESG rating of 90.7, the third-lowest among European countries, but plans announced last month to slash nitrogen and ammonia emissions could force many farms to close, given the preference for ESG over food production, and It sparked massive protests reminiscent of the truck driver protests that took place in Canada earlier this year.
Frustrated, angry, even hopeless
Wytse Sonnema of Dutch Agriculture and Horticulture told Sky News Australia the proposals were causing widespread “frustration, anger and even desperation” among farmers across the country. Imagine if you were a fifth generation farmer, making a living off the land, only to see authorities say farming did not. In the future, the rural economic, social and cultural structure will also have no future.
This all means that governments around the world are focusing on achieving climate and ESG at the expense of feeding their populations and keeping their citizens’ homes warm in winter, and it is strange that when these decisions and damages lead to social unrest, these political leaders seem to Really surprised how often this kind of turmoil ends with leaders being ousted, like Sri Lanka.
(Source of the first image:pixabay）