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š«š From Four-Day Weeks to AC Bans, the World Is Scrambling to Save Energy
Governments around the world are pressuring consumers to reduce energy use in one of the broadest efforts to alter fuel-consumption habits since the 1970s, as the Iran war drives oil-and-gas prices sharply higher.
The changes are being rolled out as a mix of voluntary acts, soft restrictions and incentives to cut demand. But the policies are multiplying and growing more constraining as the crisis continues.
Surges in oil and natural-gas prices have put sharp pressure even on countries that donāt import energy from the Middle East. With prices of derivative products such as jet fuel and liquefied natural gas also affected, the economic fallout is already percolating downāeven for energy exporters such as the U.S.
So far, the energy-saving proposals are most acute in Asia, which relies heavily on the Middle East for supplies. Sri Lanka has instituted a four-day workweek for state institutions and schools, and has started rationing fuel. Pakistan has moved to close schools for two weeks.
Bangladesh has banned the use of air conditioning to cool buildings under 77 degrees and ordered universities to close. The Maldives and Nepal are rationing the supply of liquefied petroleum gasāpopular for cookingāurging households to switch to electric stoves.
After India restricted LPG supplies this month, catering companies were forced to prune their offerings for weddings and other partiesāor find other fuels, such as charcoal and wood. After a jump in sales, many electric-induction-stove brands are now out of stock on sites like Amazon.
In Thailand, TV presenters removed their blazers on air recently in an effort to encourage citizens to turn down the air conditioning. Civil servants have been told to work from home, use stairs instead of elevators and wear lighter clothing instead of suits. State energy company PTT said it would turn off all lights during lunch breaks and after 7 p.m.
Taken together, the spurt of energy-saving policies doesnāt yet match those of the 1970s, when turmoil in the Middle East led to fuel shortages that prompted President Jimmy Carter to go on TV wearing a cardigan to urge Americans to turn down their thermostats.
Still, some policies are politically fraught. In the Philippines, transport federation Piston, whose members include tens of thousands of drivers and operators of the Philippinesā signature diesel-powered jeepney buses, called for the suspension of value-added and excise taxes and a fare hike in a protest this week.
Energy-price increases or fuel restrictions have often in the past triggered broad public opposition, from the Yellow Vest protests in France to the 2022 Sri Lanka protests that toppled the government. Europeās energy crisis following Russiaās full-scale invasion of Ukraine increased political instability.
After the Iran war broke out, several countriesā first reaction was to cap or lower energy prices to soften the impact on consumers. Germany said it would ban gas stations from raising prices more than once a dayāthey can still lower them as often as they wantāand France threatened to fine those found inflating prices.
Speaking at the WEF, Savor CEO Kathleen Alexander boasts about how her company is "saving the planet" from the evils of agriculture by replacing real butters and oils with synthetic versions made from carbon dioxide and methane. š³
"Savor is part of bringing transformation to the food system by re-imagining how we make an entire macronutrientāfats and oils."
"The result is that we can dramatically lower the planetary footprint of our food system."
"Our food system today uses about 50% of the habitable land on the planet. It's 20-30% of our greenhouse gas emissions."
"And we can reduce all of those by 50-100%."
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[July 3, 2026 EST]
š„ Top Stories
ā¢ Middle East risk flares ā IDF hits Hezbollah sites in south Lebanon; Houthis threaten Saudi assets; France deploys naval/mine-countermeasure assets near Hormuz.
ā¢ U.S. oil market scrutiny ā DOJ/FTC say theyāre monitoring crude for price-fixing/collusion as Brent settles at $72.12/bbl.
ā¢ Trump pardons saga ā Trump signs pardons for six and faces fresh scrutiny after NBC reported undisclosed stock purchases before tariff pause.
ā½ Oil & Energy
ā¢ Gulf crude exports topped 10M bpd in June but remain ~40% below pre-conflict levels; Fitch flags ongoing Iran/Mideast risk to corporates and oil forecasts.
ā¢ CMA CGM warns Hormuz transit charges would be ādevastatingā; Airbus says defense cooperation remains pressured.
š Markets & Macro
ā¢ Germanyās 2027 draft budget lifts borrowing to ā¬203.7B and spending to ā¬555.4B; euro equities firm with DAX +0.85%.
ā¢ ECB/BoE message: inflation still the focus, but Bailey says UK ...
š®š·ššŗšø Iran Is a Bigger Defeat Than Vietnam | Foreign Policy
At his second inaugural, U.S. President Donald Trump pronounced his hope āthat our recent presidential election will be remembered as the greatest and most consequential election in the history of our country.ā By losing his Gulf war, Trump has achieved that goal. His choice to launch a campaign against Iran was encouraged by others, but fully his own. It has led to a reversal that marks a strategic calamity far greater than the U.S. defeat in the Vietnam War.
Defeat in the Iranian war looks, on the surface, nothing like other U.S. military defeats. The speed of the war and its remoteness have lent an air of unreality to the whole endeavor. The White House has not been burned, as it was in 1814; there have not been protests against a nonexistent draft. The absence of substantial U.S. casualties in this conflict also masks the scale of the U.S. defeat. To be sure, the war has been deadly: Thousands of Iranians, ...
According to The Wall Street Journal, Donald Trump reviewed military options for a full-scale war against Iran to āfinish the job,ā but has decided, for now, not to move forward.
The report says Trump is concerned that renewed military conflict could hurt the chances of a diplomatic resolution and of dismantling Iranās nuclear program, and that heās shown willingness to let indirect talks in Qatar run past the August 18 deadline. He is said to be fine with continuing limited strikes on Iranian targets if Tehran violates the current temporary deal - as it already has, repeatedly.
How are those negotiations going?
Not well. It seems JD Vanceās āhistoricā face-to-face achievement was a one-off. Washington has been quietly downgraded from talking to the Great Satan to negotiating with the Little Satan instead - a senior Qatari official confirmed that U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Qatari officials in Doha, but there are currently no high-level U.S.-Iran meetings ...
