Richard Branson Believes Individuals and Governments Could Do This to Help End Ukraine War
According to Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, there’s a solution that may help to end the war in Ukraine.
Branson believes that individuals, governments should cap their energy use to help end the war and told CNBC Wednesday that individuals, companies and governments need to play their part to reduce reliance on Russian energy.
Small personal sacrifices would lower demand, bringing down prices and easing the cost-of-living crisis, he said.
Branson pointed out that airlines like his own Virgin Atlantic could cut certain unprofitable routes, for example.
The billionaire entrepreneur said that small personal sacrifices could reduce demand for Russian power, in turn bringing down prices and easing the cost-of-living crisis.
“It’s really important than we get rid of our dependence on Russian oil, gas and coal, and we must do that immediately,” Branson told CNBC’s Rosanna Lockwood.
“If we can reduce the West’s dependence on fuel, say by just 10%, that will free up something like three billion barrels of fuel. That will be plenty to make sure that countries like Germany do not have to import anymore,” he said, referring to European countries’ reliance on Russian energy.
The price of oil would come down dramatically he believes.
Branson also suggested that for reducing individual energy consumption, household central heating and air conditioning usage could be cut by 1% and driving speeds could be reduced by 10%.
Governments could, for instance, drop the national speed limit from 70 [miles per hour] to 60 for the next year “in order to support Ukraine,” he said.
“The demand for fuel is going to come down dramatically and therefore the price of fuel will come down dramatically and therefore the cost of living will come down dramatically,” he said.
Russia is a major source of energy for consumers globally. The European Union is particularly dependent, importing 45% of its gas from Russia in 2021, according to the International Energy Agency.
Oil prices moved higher early Wednesday with Brent crude futures trading at around $108.23 per barrel at 2 p.m. London time.
“If you’re an airline, maybe [cutting] a couple of routes that are not making a lot of money,” Branson said.
″[If] you spread it out across all businesses and everybody around the world, the price of oil would come down dramatically and we would not have to continue to send checks to Putin,” he added.
Branson said his proposals represent the views of a group of business leaders, known as the B Team. B Team is a non-profit, founded by Branson and Jochen Zeitz in 2012, that seeks to achieve “accountability in business,” according to its website, and has members including Marc Benioff and Arianna Huffington.
“The clean energy revolution is happening, and will happen much more rapidly than if this war didn’t happen. But, in the meantime, we can benefit from lower oil prices,” he said.
Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.