How Russia’s war and international sanctions impact global energy and food security

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, oil prices have been surging. Leading industrial nations now want to tap their oil reserves to mitigate the situation for consumers and companies. The International Energy Agency wants to release 60 million barrels of crude oil reserves. That’s about four percent of all emergency reserves of one and a half billion barrels. Meanwhile, Western oil companies continue to scale down their operations in Russia with Italy’s Eni now joining Shell and BP. Russia and Ukraine are among the world’s biggest exporters of grain. The conflict now is likely to lead to loss in production and cancelled deliveries – with potentially grave consequences for some of the poorest regions in the world.