The war in Ukraine is setting into motion the first global energy crisis of its kind, and nations around the world should respond by reducing their use of oil and gas, the leader of a key international organization warned on Friday.
The International Energy Agency, which was formed in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis to ensure a stable worldwide energy market, said that the repercussions of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine were likely to intensify over the next several months as summer driving season got underway with inventories at historic lows.
“Reducing demand is a way of addressing the situation without just pumping more oil,” said Fatih Birol, the agency’s executive director.
It’s a message that has largely been absent from the conversation in the United States, the world’s largest oil producer, where fossil fuel companies are earning healthy profits and the response to elevated gasoline prices has been calls for more production.
Dr. Birol said that the energy crunch was likely to intensify and that it differed from the 1973 oil shortage because it involves not just oil but natural gas — which affects transportation and electricity — and because countries are more interconnected now, with the result that a disturbance in one supply can have a greater impact on global markets.
On Friday, the agency recommended 10 immediate steps that nations could take to conserve oil, such as reducing speed limits, having people work from home up to three days a week and…
