Fuel costs have soared since the start of the war in Ukraine due to a supply crunch
(Picture: PA Archive)Governments have been urged to consider introducing “car free Sundays” in big cities and mandating home working at least three days a week to stop the looming crunch in oil supply making the cost of living crisis even worse.
The International Energy Agency, the Paris-based group that advises governments around the world on energy policy, today set out a ten point plan to “reduce the pain caused by high oil prices” by cutting demand for fuel.
Suggestions include reducing the speed limit on motorways by 10km per hour, banning cars from large cities on Sundays, increasing home working and ride sharing, and cutting back on business travel. The IEA said the policies could help cut demand for oil by 2.7 million barrels per day within the next four months.
The suggestions, which will remind some of the three day week adopted by Britain in the 1970s, come against a backdrop of looming bans on Russian oil imports in the US, UK and EU. The IEA said earlier this week that 3 million barrels a day could be lost from the global market come April in what is likely to be the ”biggest supply crisis in decades”.
It said today: “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has thrown global commodity markets into turmoil.
“Significant strains are showing in the global oil market, compounding difficulties in natural gas markets and creating a looming emergency for global energy security.”
The price of a barrel of Brent crude has risen from around $94 in mid-February to $11, its highest level since 2008, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Oil has been as high as $139 in recent weeks.
The West has opened talks with OPEC nations about increasing supply to compensate for lost Russian output and there are hopes that a nuclear deal with Iran could bring more supply. But the IEA said efforts to reduce demand would likely still be needed to cope with the shock.
Russia is the world’s third largest oil producer and the largest oil exporter. More than half of its exports go to Europe.
