Planes soon to be grounded, rice too expensive to produce in Asia, extension of teleworking, soaring prices of pistachios, shortage of helium necessary for the production of electronic chips… Three months after the start of the war in Iran (and Lebanon now), the end of which Donald Trump continues to announce before threatening worse, the consequences of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz are being felt more and more every day throughout the world, in Asia and Africa in particular. If the energy shock has been relatively cushioned in rich countries, however, explains the Financial Times, oil reserves are declining rapidly. And the crisis risks spreading.
The economic daily quotes figures from the International Energy Agency (IEA): “Nearly 80 countries have now adopted emergency measures in anticipation of the coming shift. Developing countries are likely to be the most seriously affected, and will find it increasingly difficult to finance the heavy subsidies put in place to protect their consumers from soaring world prices.â€
How to deal with the coming energy crisis? Which countries are most affected and which are doing the best? What lessons can we learn from this? This is the subject of our file this week. Because even if a hypothetical peace agreement were signed tomorrow, it would take months to return to a “normal” situation, that of before the war. But nothing says that anyone really wants it. Because this conflict has reminded the world of an essential thing: “Energy dependence has political consequences, écrit Benjamin H. Bradlow dans Foreign Affairs. The mess was a shock to policymakers, as countries dependent on imported fossil fuels discovered that foreign regimes could easily deprive them of an essential product and thus undermine their sovereignty.â€
At the start of our file, an article from the “Guardian†on the impact of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz on air transport.. COURRIER INTERNATIONAL
Consequence: in this crisis, there are those who had anticipated, China in the lead, by reducing their dependence on fossil fuels and by investing, for some, massively in renewable energies. At this point, they are the winners of history. The example of Pakistan is spectacular in this respect: “The share of electricity produced by solar has jumped from less than 3% in 2020 to more than 32% at the end of 2025, one of the fastest energy transitions in history.â€
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