Trump’s war on Iran is another reminder: renewable energy is national security

The first thing I thought when I heard petrol prices were climbing was this: thankfully, that’s not really our problem anymore.

That’s not because we’re rich or because inflation doesn’t matter. And it’s certainly not because what Donald Trump has unleashed in and around Iran won’t hurt ordinary Aussies. It will. Oil prices have already spiked, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has been badly disrupted, and petrol prices have spiked by up to 40 cents a litre in some places.

But when I hear reporting about pain at the bowser, my reaction is now very different to what it would have been a few years ago. Our household is fully electric. We drive EVs and ride e-bikes. We power our home and charge our cars and e-bikes with solar. So when global oil markets go haywire because an authoritarian strongman decides to play war games in one of the most strategically combustible regions on Earth, we’re not suddenly calculating how much it will cost to fill the tank. We don’t have one. That feels like freedom.

But that doesn’t mean we’re totally immune. No Aussie is.

Diesel still moves our food. Trucks still move goods. Fossil gas still flows through parts of our industry and the electricity system. Energy is built into almost everything: freight, fertiliser, manufacturing, logistics, refrigeration, warehousing, retail. Fuel price spikes make a significant contribution to inflation.

That’s why this moment matters. It’s not just about the price of petrol. It’s about whether Australia keeps tethering its prosperity to global fossil fuel markets that are volatile, cartelised, conflict-prone and fundamentally beyond our control.

We like to tell ourselves Australia’s an energy superpower. In one sense that’s true. But it’s also misleading. Federal energy data shows most of our refined fuel consumption is met by imports. We might dig up a lot of coal and pump up a lot of gas. But we send nearly all of it overseas and import almost all of our petrol and diesel. So when global oil prices surge, Aussie families wear it. We’re exposed, and not by accident. Our economy still depends on fuels whose price can be sent soaring by the whims of Donald Trump or Vladimir Putin and their wars on the other side of the world.

This is exactly why transitioning to renewables isn’t just good climate policy. It’s an economic resilience policy. It’s an anti-inflation policy. It’s a sovereignty policy.

The really important thing here is that wind and sun don’t care what Donald Trump tweets. They don’t need to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. They can’t be embargoed by petro-states. They don’t become more expensive because a tanker route is threatened or because a despot wants to posture on TV. Once the infrastructure is built, renewables are local and free.

We’re already seeing the benefits. AEMO said renewables and storage supplied more than half of Australia’s National Electricity Market energy needs in the December 2025 quarter, and wholesale prices nearly halved compared with a year earlier. More wind, more solar and more batteries reduced reliance on higher-cost coal and gas. That’s not ideology. It’s evidence.

Of course, the energy transition is far from complete. My family can avoid and ignore the bowser, but we can’t do the same with broader inflation. None of us can while diesel still underpins freight and while gas still distorts electricity prices. That’s why electrification matters so much. Electric cars matter. Household batteries matter. Cycling and public transport matter. Freight electrification matters. Getting gas out of homes and industry matters. Every step away from fossil fuels is a step away from geopolitical price shocks and vulnerability.

So yes, Trump’s war on Iran is a human tragedy and a disgrace. But it is also another brutal lesson in energy economics. Fossil fuels don’t just heat the planet. They make nations more vulnerable, households more anxious and inflation harder to control.

Australia has some of the best solar and wind resources in the world. The sooner we rely on them, backed by storage and electrification, the safer and more prosperous we’ll be. In an age of rising global insecurity, renewable energy isn’t just cleaner. It’s calmer. It’s cheaper. And increasingly, it’s the closest thing we have to real independence.

Renewables insulate Australia from global instability.