Tom Fairless

Citizens to use less power, so fly less, use public transport, work from home, reduce the speed limit on highways.

So really quite a broad range of measures to limit demand.

And the majority of the oil that is passing through the Strait of Hormuz, where the difficulties are, goes to Asia.

And so it's really poorer countries there, especially, that have quickly started to urge their citizens to find ways to save energy.

Bangladesh has banned the use of air conditioning to cool buildings under 77 degrees.

It's ordered universities to close.

It's brought forward a public holiday for Ramadan.

Sri Lanka has instituted a four-day work week, Wednesdays off, so that they wouldn't have a run of three days when the government offices were closed.

And Pakistan has initially closed schools for two weeks.

In Thailand, presenters on TV removed their jackets in a kind of flamboyant effort to encourage citizens to turn down the air conditioning.

And the civil servants there have been told to use the stairs instead of elevators where they can and to wear lighter clothing.

So there's really a broad range of measures, new ones coming day by day.

And energy-saving policies are likely to get stricter now that liquefied natural gas facilities in Iran and Qatar have been hit.

Another shock to global supplies.

So far, there hasn't been widespread stories of unrest, but there has been more protest, especially when it comes to taxes.

The Philippines, drivers of diesel-powered buses, they asked for taxes to be suspended because of these increased prices.

That's the concern of economists.

If you try and stabilize how much people are consuming when there's a shortage of energy, then the price goes up.

It's kind of economics 101.

In 2022, in the last energy crisis, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the government paid out hundreds of billions of dollars to citizens to try and lower their energy bills and try and stabilize industry.