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War and politics are complicating efforts by the two biggest polluters in history – the United States and Europe – to slow global warming, just as scientists have warned of escalating dangers.

On Tuesday evening, President Biden barely spoke about his climate goals. State of the Union speech despite his promises to make the climate an issue driving his presidency. European politicians have their own problems: they are struggling to get rid of one of the Kremlin’s most powerful economic weapons, Europe’s fossil fuel exports, which depend on it for heat and electricity.

Oil and gas prices are rising globally. This is a boon to those who extract and sell products that cause deadly heatwaves, wildfires and sea level rise. And it leads to the new increased drilling demands The US is already one of the world’s largest oil and gas producers.

Improvements coming in a few days Comprehensive report from the United Nations This has prompted world leaders to drastically reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases that are dangerously warming the planet. To fail, they said, is to face a sad future where the pace of global warming has outstripped humanity’s ability to adapt.

In Washington, Mr. Biden’s ambitious climate law was unanimously blocked by the Republican opposition and a senator from his own party. Joe ManchinRepresenting the coal-producing state of West Virginia and having strong support from the fossil fuel industry. this Supreme Court may further limit Mr. Biden’s ambitions In a lawsuit that began this week that could limit the federal government’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

In his State of the Union speech, traditionally considered a president’s best opportunity to rally the nation around an agenda, Mr. Biden referred to climate in the context of his proposals to create jobs by repairing roads, airports and other important infrastructure. “We will do everything to withstand the devastating effects of the climate crisis,” he said.

But high gas prices pose a risk to Democrats ahead of the midterm elections, and his words were meant to blunt that too. He said he would release oil reserves — worth 30 million barrels — to keep prices low for Americans. “We’ll be fine,” he said.

Energy experts said Mr Biden missed an opportunity to attribute the war in Ukraine to the need to cut economic dependence on fossil fuels faster. “The president did not articulate the long-term opportunity for the United States to lead the world in escaping the oil-dependent geopolitical nightmare,” said Paul Bledsoe, strategic adviser to the Progressive Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank. .

White House spokesman Vedant Patel said Mr Biden had shown “unshakable support” for climate solutions.

The Russian occupation of Ukraine has brought world leaders to a new and difficult crossroads. The European Union is feeling its effects most acutely.

Russia supplies about 40 percent of the gas that Europeans use for heat and electricity. As the Ukraine conflict unleashes the enormous advantage Russia has in energy exports, it forces European leaders to make some urgent choices: Should it build new fossil fuel infrastructure to be able to replace Russian fuel with liquefied natural gas from elsewhere? United States of America? Or should it move away from fossil fuels faster?

Next week, the world will get an early look at Europe’s trends, as officials in Brussels will unveil a new energy strategy aimed at diverting the continent from Russian gas.

A draft of the report, reviewed by The New York Times, suggests that the new strategy will propose accelerating energy efficiency measures and renewable energy installations. It sees imports of liquefied natural gas or LNG from the US and elsewhere as a short-term measure to offset Russian pipe gas.

“This war will have profound repercussions in one way or another in our own energy system,” European Union energy commissioner Kadri Simson told reporters after an emergency meeting with the 27-member bloc’s energy ministers this week.

Analysts say European countries can quickly reduce their dependence on gas by accelerating energy efficiency measures and renewable energy investments. The conflict in Ukraine may hasten some of that. It could also lead to what Lisa Fischer, who monitors energy policy at E3G, a research group, calls “tectonic change” — using renewable resources instead of abundant gas storage to ensure energy security.

Mr. Biden’s special representative on climate change, John Kerry, emphasized in an interview this week that Mr. Putin has “weaponized” fossil fuels, particularly gas.

“It’s relevant and people need to see it that way. “Energy is a big part of geopolitics as to what the options are.” “Energy is a key weapon in this fight and it would be a different set of games if there was much less dependency on gas.”

The United States increased LNG exports to Europe to compensate for the decline in gas in Russia’s pipeline. By the end of this year, the United States is poised to have the world’s largest LNG export capacity.

The current sanctions imposed by countries on Russia do not directly target the oil and gas sector, but the invasion of Ukraine is expected to disrupt supply routes, fueling fears that Russia may cut shipments.

In the United States, Republicans have said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine underlines the need to aggressively drill for more oil and gas in the United States to provide an alternative to Europe. North Dakota Republican Senator Kevin Cramer on Tuesday described Mr. Biden’s opening of the strategic reserve as “a thimble in the ocean.”

White House officials said Mr. Biden discussed climate change and clean energy throughout his speech. He noted that Ford and GM have invested billions of dollars into building electric vehicles, creating millions of manufacturing jobs in the United States. He also noted that the funding from the infrastructure package will establish a national network of 500,000 EV charging stations.

But climate change policy is at a critical juncture in the Biden administration. The most important legislative agenda, which the president called the Build Back Better action, is dead. Democrats still hope to pass the nearly $500 billion clean energy tax incentive that is part of the package, but opportunities to do so are dwindling. If that investment doesn’t materialize, and the Supreme Court also restricts the administration’s ability to regulate emissions, Mr. Biden’s goal of roughly halving United States emissions from 2005 levels may be essentially unattainable.

Even if climate wasn’t the focus of Biden’s speech on Tuesday, administration officials said Russia’s war against Ukraine did not put climate change off the agenda. They noted that Mr. Biden has made climate change a highlight in almost every federal agency and is moving forward with major clean energy deployments, including a record-breaking one. offshore wind auction It brought in more than $4 billion last week.