A worsening cost-of-living crisis across Europe has already seen workers in France, Spain and Belgium go out on strike in the public transport, health and aviation sectors, pushing for higher wages to help them cope with rocketing inflation. Meanwhile, the European Union has committed to reducing its Russian fossil-fuel imports by two-thirds and cutting gas demand by 15% by year’s end. Before the Ukraine war, it had already set a target to become the first carbon-neutral continent by 2050.
The squeeze on oil and gas imports from Russia, after its February invasion of Ukraine, has left countries scrambling to plug the energy gap through a mix of energy efficiency measures, firing up old coal plants and boosting renewable energy projects. Some economists say the immediate need to keep Europe’s electricity and heating running should trump medium-to-long term goals to adopt more clean energy and curb climate change, especially heading into the colder winter months.
But climate campaigners want to see governments turn their back on fossil fuels entirely, invest more heavily in efficiency measures and add more renewables to their energy mix. Whichever route they choose, the coming winter is set to be plagued by social unrest. Faced with the threat of power outages, EU countries have introduced a raft of energy efficiency measures to help slash power bills, as annual inflation hits a record 8.9%, with about 4 percentage points of that due to more expensive energy.
Spanish citizens have been feeling the heat during a sizzling summer, after the government ordered air-conditioning to be set no cooler than 27 degrees Celsius (80.6F) in public buildings, hotels, restaurants and shopping centres. France, meanwhile, is focusing on energy sobriety with measures to be launched by the end of summer including dimming illuminated public billboards overnight, and fining shops that leave doors open while using heating or cooling.
Germany, the EU state most dependent on Russian fuels, has announced heating limits of 19C (66.2F) in the winter for public buildings and colder public pools, while cities like Augsburg are contemplating which traffic lights to turn off. Such efforts form part of a wider EU drive to slash gas demand as the bloc races to shore up supplies ahead of winter, amid fears Russia will further restrict gas deliveries in response to EU financial sanctions. But energy savings have yet to ease the pressure of surging utility bills and protests have been planned from Madrid to London for the autumn in response to the cost of living crisis.
Cassie Sutherland of C40 Cities, a network of major cities pushing for swift action on climate change, said measures were required to cushion the impact of energy inflation while also cutting emissions fast enough to limit global warming to 1.5C, the lower goal set by governments in the 2015 Paris Agreement. European consumer organisation BEUC agrees that countries should roll out ambitious retrofit plans to protect households from energy price volatility.
As fears rise over energy insecurity, Germany, Italy, Austria and the Netherlands have signalled they will allow shuttered coal-fired plants to reopen or prolong operations beyond planned closure dates. A new report from the Climate Crisis Advisory Group (CCAG), a panel of 16 international climate experts, called on governments to use the energy crisis to slash greenhouse gas emissions deeply and rapidly and accelerate the switch to renewables.
