At the turn of the century, Europe was producing close to 7 million barrels of oil per day, chiefly from the North Sea. The United Kingdom alone accounted for nearly 3 million barrels per day, placing it among the world’s top producers. This was a position of strength that gave Europe control over its energy sovereignty.

That position was abandoned, not lost.

Over the past two decades, European governments have made a deliberate political choice to wind down oil production under the influence of climate ideology. Policy, not geology, drove the shift. Licensing rounds were restricted or halted. Regulatory burdens increased. Investment was discouraged. Climate policy did not simply signal a transition, it actively reduced capital flowing into oil exploration and production, resulting in a measurable decline in upstream investment across the sector.

The result is visible in the numbers. Production has fallen to roughly 3.3 to 3.5 million barrels per day, less than half its peak, while the European Union now imports almost all the oil it consumes. By some estimates, had capital and investment not been choked off, European production levels could have doubled to close to 15 million barrels per day.

To put that number in perspective, before the current Iran war, around 20 million barrels per day passed through Hormuz.

It is irritating then to listen to European leaders bemoan the war as having unsettled the global economy and threatened its growth and stability. It was European governments and parliaments that did that, in practice imposing a self-inflicted Hormuz-style snarl-up on themselves.

Consider this defeatist statement from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer: “[The war] is hitting global supplies of oil, of gas, and fertiliser, which is pushing up prices here at home... We have already acted alongside other countries to release emergency oil stocks at a level that is completely unprecedented… But, ultimately, we have to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to ensure stability in the market.”

Or this from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen: “Iran has to cease immediately the threats… to block the strait to commercial shipping… The situation is critical for energy supply allies worldwide… We all feel the knock-on effects on gas and oil prices.”

The lesson that Europe will hopefully learn from the Iran war is the priority must not be to “open the strait” but instead to restore homegrown investment in, exploration for, and production, of oil. That requires a change of attitude to reopening fossil fuel exploration and development, reversing restrictive policies and legislation, and allowing capital back into the sector. Without that shift, external crises will continue to hit harder than they should.

If that lesson can be learned the next step will be to stop preaching what has frankly been breathtakingly racist and paternal climate ideology at Africa, to rein in the vast damage done by European-sponsored climate advocates and non-profits on the continent, and to remove all climate-inspired threats to African exports so that African economies can exploit their own oil and fossil fuel resources unincumbered, as a critical building block to the advancement of African economies.

Read our report today on how loadshedding was largely a consequence of European-inspired climate ideology, and how European foreign policy proxies continue to lobby for this ideology in South Africa, despite the immense damage done to this country’s economy and its people.