Solving a crisis – energy or climate – needs big government

The surge in gas prices just weeks before the Cop26 climate summit is a reminder that rationing energy use raises big questions only states can answer, writes Phil Thornton

No 10 must use all its financial muscle and legal powers to push through changes (Getty/iStock)

When it comes to the climate emergency and the energy crisis, the UK government has taken two contrasting approaches.

En route to the United States to meet president Joe Biden last week, Boris Johnson warned bluntly that some major governments needed “to do much more” if November’s climate summit in Glasgow was to succeed in achieving the ambitions set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

But with household gas prices set to spiral, the prime minister appeared confident that this was a short-term problem that would be resolved by the self-interested cooperation of suppliers in a free market.