[Kasalikasan] The war on Iran: Its cost on people and planet

2026-03-17 - 10:04

It’s 24 minutes before midnight, and I find myself lined up, like a dozen other cars, at a nearby gas station to get my tank filled up before the scheduled price hike on March 10. I don’t normally do this; I’m the type to use up all my gas until the last two bars before I fuel up. But with the US-Israel war on Iran resulting in sustained increases in oil and gas costs, I line up like many car users this Monday night, hoping to make each of my hard-earned pesos count. Imagine how this is affecting the jeepney drivers, the farmers, and the fishers, who are directly impacted by these rising prices. A jeepney driver whom Rappler reporter Eirene Manatlao talked to lamented: “Ang sakit sa puso (It’s heartbreaking).” We are all losers in a war that’s thousands of miles away from home. “Fossil fuel dependency is ripping away national security and sovereignty, and replacing it with subservience and rising costs,” United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell, on Monday, March 16, told officials and government ministers of the European Union, which heavily relies on imported fossil fuels. Stiell pointed to the Iran war — an “abject lesson” on the risks of fossil fuel reliance — as to why governments must wean their economies off oil and gas. This is especially true for the Philippines, which imports roughly 90% of its crude oil supplies. Sam Reynolds and Ramnath Iyer of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis wrote: “The most financially sustainable, long-term solution is to reduce exposure to global market volatility altogether by rapidly deploying renewable energy.” “Fossil fuel importing countries will remain perpetually vulnerable to commodity market shocks — a Sword of Damocles hanging over their economic stability. Renewable energy is not only a climate imperative; it is the only permanent solution for energy and economic security,” the briefing note on the Iran conflict read. Beyond calls for Filipinos to avoid panic buying at this time, perhaps the government should also give updates on where we are in the country’s efforts to transition to clean energy sources. Veteran business journalist and Rappler columnist Val Villanueva wrote in June 2025 how foreign renewable energy investors were then “staging a slow, quiet retreat” amid “a toxic cocktail of bureaucratic dysfunction; entrenched corruption; financial self-sabotage; and policy instability.” What has happened since? Are we moving in the right direction? How swiftly, how just? And how can we avoid yet again bearing the brunt of similar crises in the future? South Korea’s president sees the Iran crisis as “a good opportunity to swiftly and extensively transition to renewable energy.” Mapapa-sana all ka na lang talaga. It’s another Monday as I write this, and my feed is replete again with posts about the long lines at gasoline stations. Let’s hope this won’t be our story for too long. Till the Tuesday after next! Here are other stories from our cluster that you shouldn’t miss: Goodbye, ‘Mount Kamuning’? New footbridge, busway station unveiled A storm in Mt. Daguldol What makes tracking fishers at sea hard? How Visayas LGUs are implementing energy-saving measures What will it take for solar power to take off in the Philippines? After years of delay, Cebu Bus Rapid Transit begins operations – Rappler.com Kasalikasan is a bimonthly newsletter featuring environmental and science issues, delivered straight to your inbox every other Tuesday. Visit rappler.com/newsletters to subscribe.