Europe ‘too dependent’ on Russian gas says von der Leyen
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REPowerEU is the European Commission’s plan to completely cut oil and gas imports from Russia by 2027. The plan involved a pledge to increase its binding energy efficiency target from nine percent to 13 percent by 2030. To do this, the bloc is encouraging people to “switch off the lights”, to “drive more economically” and to “use less air-conditioning”.
Critics have torn apart the plan for being “tone deaf” and not providing the help that millions in nations facing energy poverty need “right now” now as people are forced to choose between eating and heating.
Martha Myers, a lead organiser at the Right to Energy Coalition, said: “The EU response … seems extremely tone deaf to the lived experience of the financial strain of millions who are actually under-consuming energy right now.”
She added that this is a “very neoliberal kind of behavioural change” that shifts the blame onto consumers rather than governments and energy companies.
It comes as energy prices are continuing to skyrocket amid the Ukraine war, which is causing a huge knock-on effect on customers who have to cope with rising bills
2019 saw a quarter of EU households — around 50 million people – not being able to heat, cool or light their homes properly over cash concerns, according to an EU-led study.
The EU estimates now that this number is 50 and 125 million people.
And this is getting worse as utility bills are surging in accordance with the skyrocketing prices of gas, 40 percent of which the EU gets from Russia.
That is because the war in Ukraine, in combination earlier price trends sparked by Russian gas squeezes, saw EU energy prices shoot up by 40 percent in March compared to the same period last year.
Dora Biondani, senior project coordinator with the European Energy Poverty Advisory Hub, warned: “What this war made people realise is that it is very easy for their status to change and become energy poor.
“The increase in prices … actually makes the pool of people much wider.”
But a bulk of EU citizens have known for some years that energy poverty is a concern.
According to the Special Eurobarometer 492, the poll 2019 indicated that 89 percent of EU citizens agreed that the bloc must ensure access to affordable energy, ensuring competitive market prices, and to slash th number of people who cannot afford to pay for high energy bills.
But since 2019, this number has risen, with the crisis even affecting countries with higher incomes such as the Netherlands.
Energy prices skyrocketed by an average of 99.6 percent in March compared to 2021 in the Netherlands.
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Now, the average Dutch household will have to fork out €3,600 (£3,048) for gas and electricity in 2022, according to the PwC consultancy.
Voedselbanken, which oversees 172 Dutch food banks, predicts that this could see the number of people using food aid shoot up 15 percent from the 150,000 using food banks now.
And the Dutch Government has come under fire for failing to protect its citizens from energy poverty.
Marlies Hesselman, energy poverty expert from the University of Groningen, said: “Because public authorities never had any active energy poverty policy, nor data, they now lack tools to properly target support to those with the highest bills.”
A Dutch Government spokesperson responded that “targeted measures are very complicated”.
In 2020, it was estimated by Statista that Bulgaria is the most at risk to energy poverty, with 27.5 percent of its population reportedly unable to heat their homes.
In Spain, 10 percent of people could not adequately heat their homes in 2020, according to Statista.
But as energy bills rose by more than 60 percent in March compared to last year, the situation will most likely get much worse.
Mònica Guiteras, an energy poverty activist, said: “We are very worried.
“It’s catastrophic, not only because of the climate, but because we are not all equal in these heatwaves.”
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