Eurozone split could cause ‘dark age’

ANGELA MERKEL won’t allow the eurozone to split because she understands it could cause “a dark age” by wrecking the markets leading energy policy as oil supplies dwindle, said an adviser to the German chancellor.

Europe’s 500 million residents, the wealthiest market on Earth, have led the development of technologies in clean energy, transport and communications that can drive global growth that does not rely on oil, said Jeremy Rifkin, a business school professor who has advised Merkel for six years.

“I hope they pull this off, there’s no one else,” he said of Merkel’s struggle to boost growth as part of Europe’s rescue strategy and preserve the single currency area.

“If it splits up, we’re into a dark age.”

Rifkin argues that record oil prices in 2008, rather than the collapse of Lehman Brothers was the main cause of the financial crisis.

The global economy won’t return to its pre-crisis growth until it moves away from fossil fuels because rising oil prices will continually hold down expansion, he said.

The global economy sputtered again this year after oil prices surged.

The European Central Bank started buying Italian and Spanish government bonds to control the sovereign debt crisis on August 8, three months after oil prices reached their highest since 2008. &

Germany’s deployment of renewable energy, intelligent power grids and electric vehicles leaves it best-placed to lead the world economy beyond its reliance on fossil fuels, Rifkin said.

Merkel said on Wednesday: “If the euro fails, Europe fails ... but we shall not allow this to happen.”