PARIS, April 7 -- The world's worst energy crisis, caused by the Middle East war, will accelerate the development of renewables, nuclear energy and electric vehicles, the head of the International Energy Agency has predicted.

In an interview published today with the French conservative Le Figaro newspaper, IEA executive director Fatih Birol argued that the current energy crunch "is more serious than those of 1973, 1979 and 2022 combined".

But despite the fuel price spike caused by Iran's de facto blockade of the vital Strait of Hormuz chokepoint, there were "reasons to be optimistic" from how "the architecture of the worldwide energy system will change".

"It will take years. It will not be a solution to the current crisis, but the geop...