For most of the world, 2026’s gas shock began on Feb. 28. That’s when US and Israeli strikes against Iran first threatened to block a fifth of the world’s supplies of liquefied natural gas, sending prices in Europe up nearly 50% in a matter of hours.

In northern China, it began months earlier, when biting winter cold and rising prices for domestic fuel left cash-strapped rural households enduring frigid conditions that seem like a throwback to an earlier, more poverty-stricken era: Layering clothing to compensate for boilers they couldn’t afford to switch on, or standing outside in the middle of the day to warm themselves with wan winter sunlight.

© Bloomberg