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Russia's invasion of Ukraine is inextricably linked to the global energy crisis.
With wholesale gas prices already at extremely high levels, in part due to Russia's actions, the attack on Ukraine has prompted widespread debate over how to respond.
As a major humanitarian crisis has unfolded, there have also been fears that climate action could be relegated by world leaders to an afterthought.
Concerns over energy security are particularly acute in Europe, which is heavily reliant on Russian exports of coal, oil and gas. Two major narratives have emerged in response.
Many, including leaders from the European Commission's Ursula von der Leyen to the UK's Boris Johnson, have emphasised the need to accelerate the roll out of clean energy technologies.
Some politicians have coupled this with calls to boost domestic fossil fuel supplies, so as to reduce the need for Russian imports. Meanwhile, climate sceptics have made domestic oil and gas their sole focus, in some cases going so far as attempting to argue that clean energy is part of the problem.
In this Q&A, Carbon Brief rounds up the best charts, analysis and commentary on what Russia's invasion of Ukraine means for energy, commodities and, ultimately, climate action.
- Why does Russia matter for global energy supplies?
- How is the invasion affecting energy markets and consumer bills?
- How could Europe reduce its reliance on Russian energy?
- What are politicians saying about the energy response to the crisis?
- How are sanctions affecting energy and other commodities?
- What impact is the crisis having on food and other commodities?
Why does Russia matter for global energy supplies?
Russia is a major part of the global energy system thanks to its huge fossil fuel resources. It is the world's third largest oil producer after the US and Saudi Arabia, accounting for 12% of global output, and the second largest gas producer after the US, responsible for 17% of the global output.
Russian energy supplies are particularly important in Europe, which receives around 70% of the country's gas exports and half of its oil exports, according to official US data.
The rest of Russia's gas exports go to Belarus (8%), China (5%), Kazakhstan (5%), Japan (4%) and other parts of Eurasia, Asia and Oceania. Its remaining oil exports go to China (31%), South Korea (6%), Belarus (6%), Japan (2%), the US (1%) and other parts of Eurasia, Asia and Oceania.
More than a third of Europe's gas supplies come from Russia, according to the New York Times. It has produced a map showing how Russian gas exports are received across Europe.
While Europe is heavily reliant on Russian fuel supplies, Russia is in turn reliant on revenues from fossil fuel sales, which make up more than two-fifths of government revenue. According to Javier Blas writing for Bloomberg, the UK, EU and US collectively spend more than $700m a day buying Russian oil and gas.
Over the past three decades, the European Union has received nearly 40% of its gas and more than a quarter of its oil from Russia, the New York Times reported in a separate piece.
While some countries, such as Poland and France, have decreased their dependence on Russian fuel over this time, others, such as Germany and Italy, have become more reliant, according to New York Times analysis using Eurostat data.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday that gas accounted for a quarter of the country's energy mix, with more than half of it coming from Russia, according to the Financial Times. The newspaper reported:
"Scholz insisted, however, that Germany would wean itself off its addiction to gas. It would be carbon-neutral in 25 years, he said, and would expand solar and wind power capacity 'so we can produce steel, cement and chemicals without using fossil fuels'."
The UK is much less reliant on oil and gas from Russia than the European Union, the Guardian reported.
The UK sources less than 5% of its gas from Russian imports, instead relying largely on dwindling North Sea reserves and supply from Norway, the publication said, drawing on analysis from the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies.
Some publications have speculated on the risk that the Ukraine crisis could disrupt gas supplies to Europe, either as collateral damage from conflict or via a political move from Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The Times on Tuesday reported on comments from Shell, which warned that Europe needs to "make urgent reforms to address the vulnerability of its gas supplies".
On Thursday, Reuters reported that Spanish and Portuguese officials had called for Europe to coordinate managing its energy supplies after Russia's invasion "heightened fears of disruption".
Prof Thijs Van De Graaf, an associate professor of international politics at the Ghent Institute for International and European Studies at Ghent University, Belgium, examined the risk that Russia will "turn off the gas taps" to Europe in a detailed Twitter thread.
Russia could afford to cut gas supplies, he said, noting that Russia earns five times more from the export of oil than gas and that it holds $630bn in foreign reserves. Despite this, it is "highly unlikely" that Russia will cut gas supplies to "Gazprom's biggest customers in Europe", he said.
"Russia cannot simply switch its gas exports to, say, China since it lacks the pipeline infrastructure," he added.
On the risk of warfare disrupting supplies, he pointed out that most gas transit pipelines do not run through the Donbass region, an area central to the conflict in south-eastern Ukraine.
However, as the crisis escalates, "gas pipelines through Ukraine could be disrupted", he said. But "some of the Russian gas exports to Europe could then be rerouted to other pipelines", he added.
It is also worth noting that Russia has been reducing its gas delivered to Europe for months, he added, limiting exports "to the volumes that it is contractually obliged to deliver".
Although Europe is the main destination for Russian energy exports, Russia has increasingly turned to China for energy and general economic cooperation. Some UK media outlets have suggested that China could "throw Russia an economic lifeline" to "weather the storms of sanctions" by, for example, buying more energy from it.
An official at Russia's Ministry of Energy said last week that Russia planned to increase its coal exports to China to 100m tonnes, according to Russian news agency Tass.
In early February - three weeks before the Ukrainian invasion - the two nations inked new oil and gas deals worth an estimated $117.5bn (£86.6bn), including a 30-year gas contract that would boost Russia's gas supply to China by "a quarter".
Reuters described Russia's agreement to the deal as "bolstering an energy alliance with Beijing amid Moscow's strained ties with the West over Ukraine and other issues".
Gazprom - which signed the deal with a Chinese state-run energy company and has a monopoly over the country's gas exports - said that "as soon as the project reaches its full capacity", Russia would supply China with 48bn cubic metres of gas per year through the new pipeline and the existing "Power of Siberia" system. (The latter is not connected to pipelines that send gas to Europe, Reuters said.)
Russia and China are currently discussing four more gas pipeline projects. Liu Qian - executive deputy director from the Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies at the China University of Petroleum in Beijing - told China Chemical Industry News that those projects included "Power of Siberia 2", which would connect Russia with China via Mongolia.
He also mentioned a far eastern route from Russia's Vladivostok to China - which the latest gas deal is presumed to be part of - and a yet-to-be-constructed western route connecting Russia's Siberia with China's Xinjiang. The last out of the four, according to Liu, was a "supply boost" to the "Power of Siberia" system to bring up its annual exports from 38bn to 44bn cubic metres.
How is the invasion affecting energy markets and consumer bills?
Many publications have reported on how the crisis is affecting energy markets and bills.
The Financial Times on Thursday reported that European gas prices temporarily increased by almost 70%, while crude oil rose above $105 a barrel for the first time since 2014, "after Russia's invasion of Ukraine triggered fresh worries about global energy supplies".
News of the invasion briefly sent Brent crude, the benchmark against which most other crude grades are priced, up 9% to $105.79 a barrel, the Financial Times reported.
However, Brent prices settled at $99.08 a barrel after US president Joe Biden announced that his latest sanctions against Russia would focus on the finance sector rather than the energy sector, the newspaper said.
(Reuters on Wednesday reported that US officials were reluctant to target Russia's energy sector "due to concerns about inflation and the harm it could do to its European allies, global oil markets and US consumers".)
Amrita Sen from the UK consultancy Energy Aspects told the Financial Times that "the fear of supply disruptions had gone away" after Biden decided not to impose energy related sanctions on Russia. (See: How are sanctions affecting energy and other commodities?).
"The west can't afford energy sanctions given where oil and gas prices are," she added.
A Reuters story on Thursday reported that Greece has urged France, which currently holds the EU presidency, to call an emergency meeting of energy ministers to discuss a collective response to surging energy prices "further exacerbated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine".
In a letter, co-signed by Bulgaria and Romania, Greek energy minister Kostas Skrekas said the energy crisis had a "destructive impact" on the life of European citizens and industries.
His letter to French ecological transition minister Barbara Pompili said:
"This is a crisis situation, which requires an EU level response...In this light, we would ask the French presidency to organise an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Energy Ministers as soon as possible."
Meanwhile, Reuters data showed that UK wholesale gas prices rose by as much as 60% on Thursday, amid Russia's invasion, before dropping back to lower levels on Friday.
People in much of Europe and North America have already been facing rising energy costs as fuel prices have soared in recent months following the lifting of Covid restrictions.
