Countries are beginning to understand that only nuclear energy is immune to threats posed by extreme market challenges because it is not dependent on gas prices or the weather, Poland’s climate and environment minister Michael Kurtyka said in a press conference held by the International Atomic Energy Agency ahead of the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow.

Responding to a question about rising gas prices in Europe, Mr Kurtyka said the world is entering an unprecedented energy crisis. “We have not seen such a magnitude of price changes since the 1970s,” he said. “We also have the common ambition of making sure we tackle the climate crisis.”

He said this has led to a move away from the “old energy paradigm” of dependency on fossil fuels towards a new paradigm of energy security. “This means we are less dependent on fossil fuels, but more on the weather,” said Mr Kurtyka, who served as president of Cop24 when Poland hosted the UN climate summit in 2018.