Ukraine Crisis, page-13

from the guardian today (Ben Butler) - I wondered if something like this might be on the cards

Investors are turning to clean energy stocks as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens to further raise oil prices and highlights Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and gas.US markets are closed right now but on the Australian exchange the price of the Global Clean Energy ETF offered by VanEck, which tracks the price of big renewable energy companies that are on an index maintained by S&P, is up more than 8% so far today.The index itself was up 5.6% overnight.The Russian market, which is heavy with oil and gas companies, has already been devastated by sanctions imposed by the US and European countries, although so far western powers have steered clear of doing anything that could stop customers paying for Russian oil and gas.Russia itself is also about to default on its sovereign debt due to the sanctions and the threat of more to come, ratings agency Fitch said.VanEck senior associate Alice Chen said the US’s decision to ban imports of Russian oil could further boost prices, adding to the attractiveness of renewables.“This trend towards clean energy stocks too will likely gain momentum as energy consumers seek substitutes for fossil fuels and the demand for renewable energy rises to meet climate change carbon emissions targets,” she said.“The Russia-Ukraine war highlights the vulnerability of countries that rely on fossil fuels, arguably raising the importance of clean energy as an energy supply and it could be an important impetus for the acceleration to clean energy globally.”