August 14, 2025

If recent and current events have taught us anything, it’s that the decisions, actions, and policies of overseas government and organisations have an undue impact on UK energy prices and scarcity. 

Our current dependence on fossil fuels and imported energy means that we cannot take the supply of our energy for granted, or count on it being affordable. Global economic shocks, war and conflict, and hostility from oil-exporting nations (or invention by our own government and allies) ought to have shocked us out of any complacency. 

Fossil fuel is not only unsustainable environmentally, but also economically. A robust decarbonisation programme is long overdue, but the second-best time to transition is now. In that urgent project, wood fuel (and particularly wood heating) is one of the most vital components. 

In the EU27, biomass fuel is 95% locally sourced. It is at very little risk of scarcity or price volatility as a result of global market vulnerability. That stands in stark contrast to fossil fuels, especially oil and gas, which are 98% imported. 

Source: Bioenergy Europe, (2024), European Bioenergy Landscape 

Similarly, in 2023, 68% of the UK’s biomass for power, heat, and transport came from domestic feedstocks. While there is some way to go towards making the UK’s biomass resource complexly domestic, that is mainly a matter of policy, supply chains, and commercial incentives. There is no geographical or practical impediment to a robust domestic biomass supply. Even as it stands, a 32% import dependency is vastly superior for energy security than a 98% dependency. 

Source: ONS, Retail Price Index 

Even in relatively stable months and years, the price of fossil fuel is volatile. It is a resource that is growing scarcer, but more importantly it is exported overwhelmingly from regions where governments are either hostile to the west, unpredictable in their behaviour, or questionable in their ethics. Any one of those can destabilise the price of oil, and sometimes it is all three at once. 

• Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the cost of heating oil in the UK spiked from £695.71 to £1009.89 per 1000 litres. 

• In a startling ‘coincidence’, in September 2022 the Nordstream 1 pipeline had to be ‘closed for repairs’, hours after the G7 announced price caps on Russian oil 

• Oil prices yo-yoed in 2025 when Israel carried out bomb strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, when the US contributed with attacks of its own, and when a very fragile ceasefire was in effect, then in doubt, then back in effect. 

A world of tariffs, trade wars, and real wars is not one in which to rely on imported oil from hostile territories. 

Even discounting the environmental benefits, a comprehensive domestic supply of renewable energy would be transformational to the UK’s energy and economic security. 

• Hostile powers could not turn off the supply 

• Well managed forestry, for example, would mean that fuel supply would not run out 

• A domestic renewable fuel source is not at the mercy of international cartel behaviour 

The UK government must robustly and decisively support the creation and strengthening of domestic wood fuel supply chains, and play its vital role in the creation of demand for renewable fuels by supporting businesses in the decarbonisation of their heat and power. 

Meanwhile, Innasol is supporting organisations that want to reduce or end their dependence on fossil fuels. For details on how to future proof your business sustainably, read our Guide to Green Business Energy.  

Or, if you would like to discuss your roadmap to renewables and energy independence, please call 01621 892613 to speak to a green power expert who can offer friendly and no-obligation advice.