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In an interview with Audrey Garric on the Le Monde website, the president of the High Council on Climate, Corinne Le Quéré , observes that while the French response to global warming isn't bad, there is no guarantee that the country will be able to meet its climate targets. Corinne Le Quéré is the president of the…
Policymakers, businesses and households alike are struggling to cope with skyrocketing prices, which are fanning fears of irreparable damages to the country’s prized industries, economic hardships for its citizens, and social unrest. The long-term impact on the country’s landmark energy transition remains uncertain, as Germany redoubles efforts to roll out renewables, but also bets on liquefied natural gas (LNG), a temporary revival of coal plants and a limited runtime extension for its remaining nuclear plants to weather the storm.
Citizens across Europe are concerned about their heating bills as a result of the energy price crisis, but sustainable heating and cooling do not yet receive much attention in the EU’s agenda
Sky-high energy prices have threatened to bankrupt households and businesses alike, prompting governments and the European Union to dig into their pockets and design new energy and economic policies meant to quell the crisis.
There is a lot of uncharted territory to cover. Governments have never had to replace energy supplies at such short notice and so comprehensively before. The EU has never had to build policies that skim off the huge revenue profits made by energy companies. Sacred cows like electricity market rules are suddenly on the chopping block. It is an exciting time to track these developments.
Member states have pledged to redistribute the energy sector's surplus profits to low income customers
The 1,000 municipal utilities that are the last link in the German energy supply chain are feeling the pinch of record-high energy prices, raising fears that some of them might go bankrupt.
Soaring energy prices and gas supply disruptions are mounting pressure on Europe to renovate its ageing, inefficient buildings as governments scramble to protect citizens from big bills.
Similar to the two navigational hazards mythologized as sea monsters in ancient Greece—Scylla and Charybdis—which gave rise to sayings such as, “between the devil and the deep blue sea” and “between a rock and a hard place,” modern energy policy has its own Scylla and Charybdis. On the one hand is the requirement to maintain sufficient energy flows to avoid economic peril. On the other hand is the need to avert climate catastrophe resulting from such activities. Policymakers naturally want all the benefits of abundant energy with none of the attendant climate risks. But tough choices can no longer be put off.
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While energy is the common foundation of Europe’s economy, EU member states have strikingly different energy policies. In the context of compounding security, economic, and environmental crises, calls to surmount the tensions surrounding energy are increasing. We spoke to economist Helen Thompson about the fault lines exposed by the energy crisis, government responses to our present disorder, and prospects for greater European unity.
Faced with the convergence of economic, social, political and environmental crises, the importance of the public sector has been rediscovered on a global scale. The article offers a review of the evolution of political and academic debates on public ownership in general and public services provision in particular over the last decades, with emphasis on the energy sector.
Governments across the continent have announced a range of measures to tackle any energy shortages this winter
While governments focus on how to protect consumers from escalating energy prices, Belgium shows an important way forward. Since 2002, eligible households have been shielded from price fluctuations in the energy market. People don’t have to struggle. Carl Packman discusses the approach taken by Belgium in an article on The Guardian website. There is…
While the UK government on Friday announced an additional £1bn for energy efficiency obligations under new legislation, to begin from April 2023, undoubtedly the main focus of the new government is to increase energy supplies (yes, with a cap on consumer prices), largely of fossil fuels including fracking. The energy crisis is currently with us…
As energy bills climb and fears grow that consumers will become unable to heat their homes, some are pointing to the EU’s newly-created “citizen energy communities” as a way of enabling entire neighbourhoods to produce their own electricity or insulate homes.
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