Trump’s Iran war is driving politicians and consumers to embrace clean energy

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The irony will be lost on Donald Trump, but the fallout from his calamitous war of choice in Iran could be what pushes many world leaders and households to turn against fossil fuels for good.

Consumers are already feeling the pinch because of Trump’s “excursion” in Iran.

Soaring oil and fossil gas prices cost households and businesses worldwide an additional $104.2 to $111.6bn over the war’s first month, according to research published last week by the campaign group 350.org.

Consumers shouldn’t expect relief anytime soon.

“The sharp end of the spear for the global economy is the spike in the cost of jet fuel, which has more than doubled in the month since the war began to more than $195 a barrel as a global average,” Foreign Policy’s Keith Johnson wrote last Friday. 

That spike is showing up not just in higher fares and checked bag fees for commercial flights but will soon be reflected in the prices of goods carried in the cargo holds of those flights, too.

Soaring prices and fuel shortages have spooked politicians, especially leaders whose economies are overly dependent on imported fossil fuels.

“Right now, there is chaos worldwide due to energy issues. Frankly, the situation is so serious that I cannot sleep. South Korea must swiftly transition to renewable energy,” South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said at a town hall on a university campus on March 30.

He added, “Relying on fossil energy is extremely dangerous for the future. We do not produce these resources ourselves, and chasing imports has led to the current crisis.”

His remedies for Trump’s energy crisis? Homegrown clean energy and climate solutions.

“We should quickly transition to electric vehicles, switch heating to heat pumps, and accelerate the use of abundant wind energy,” he said.

Consumers are ditching fossil fuels

Indeed, amid the fallout of Trump’s energy shock, the ground is already shifting under our feet.

Last week, the German Heat Pump Association projected that heat pump sales in the country would increase 10% this year to reach 330,000 units, with similar growth expected in the coming years, Clean Energy Wire reported.

“The association has seen considerable interest in heat pumps among homeowners, but said it expected demand to fall short of the actual potential, as debate surrounding Germany's plans for the future of clean heating generate significant uncertainty,” writes Edgar Meza.

But because of Trump’s war in Iran, those projections are likely already out of date. Consumer sentiment is simply moving too fast.

Consider the UK, where electricity provider Octopus Energy reports that its customers are scrambling to buy products that don’t burn fossil fuels.

“People in Britain want energy security that doesn't depend on what's happening thousands of miles away,” the company posted on Bluesky on April 1.

“As the Middle East conflict continues to shake the world – people are asking us about solar, heat pumps and electric cars in record numbers. Solar sales up 54%. Heat pumps up 51%. EV leasing up 36%. Battery installations nearly doubled,” it added.

“Clean energy and electric tech are becoming the obvious choice for Britain: not just because it's the right thing for the planet. Because it makes financial sense, and the product is simply better,” the company concluded.

Referencing how consumer preferences changed as a result of the oil crises of the 1970s, the company said: “The Financial Times likened it this week to Americans swapping their Cadillacs for Fords in 1973 – and despite everything going on in the world right now, the point stands: people make smarter choices when the old ones stop making sense.”

The last anecdote is especially apt as sticker shock at the pump has households everywhere looking to ditch their gas-guzzlers for EVs.

In the U.S., where Republicans terminated the federal tax credit for EVs last year, consumers “are finding that used EVs are more attractively priced than ever – and are snapping the cars up as a result,” Canary Media’s Jeff St. John reported last week.

It’s a similar story in Europe, reports Jaap Burger of the Regulatory Assistance Project.

“Interest in second-hand electric cars is growing in many markets, including Romania, Portugal and other countries,” he wrote at Bluesky last week.

Used EV sales in March were up 48% in the Netherlands, 47% in France, and 51% in Sweden.

“Used car sales are going up faster because they are available immediately, unlike new cars which can have lead times of around three months,” Burger said. “Drivers of cheaper, used cars are also more sensitive to price surges at the pump.”

“Many Europeans were slowly warming up to the idea of an EV as the car to buy in five to ten years, but the current energy shock is turning that into the car to buy next month,” he concluded.

Quitting carbon for good

Even if the Trump administration and the Iranian regime announced a deal to end the war today, it won’t be possible to return to the world as it existed before the first U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on February 28.

Nor should we want to.

That world, we see all too clearly now, was fragile, vulnerable, and still far too reliant on dirty and expensive imported fossil fuels. But unlike during the oil shocks of the 1970s, energy users today can free themselves from that dependence.

How fitting that a president who so slavishly does the bidding of the oil and gas industry launched a war of choice that is prompting consumers around the world to abandon his benefactors’ products.