Read in Financial Times, by Alice Hancock in Brussels
The International Energy Agency chief has criticised Europe for falling behind China and the US after making “two historic monumental mistakes” in energy policy, by relying on Russian gas and turning away from nuclear power. Fatih Birol, the agency’s executive director, told the Financial Times that European industry was now paying the price for these errors and that the bloc would need “a new industrial master plan” in order to recover. The Paris-based Birol’s intervention comes as the EU leaders prepare to debate the bloc’s economic competitiveness this week.
In 2019, the EU set out among the most ambitious climate goals in the world with a commitment to cut emissions by 55 percent compared with 1990 levels by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.
It has since adopted the majority of legislation to transform its economy to meet that goal but politicians fear a backlash when laws such as a ban on new internal combustion engines or more stringent energy efficiency rules start to affect voters ahead of upcoming EU-wide elections.
Green policies are also falling down the list of government priorities as security fears related to migration and the war in Ukraine preoccupy leaders.
Dan Jørgensen, the Danish climate and development minister, said that to maintain citizens’ support for the Green Deal, the EU needed to “do our homework” and ensure that climate policy was integrated.
This had to be done in a way that “does not hurt our competitiveness, does not hurt our employment, does not lead to more inequality but actually does the opposite . . . it’s extremely timely that we have a discussion about what this looks like.”
Conclusion
Reading this article there are two things that are quite obvious:
1. Transparency, as Jørgensen says, do the homework, and discuss how to transfer securely from fossil fuel economy to renewable, still making sure that the manufacturers and the citizens have a stable transition. Stable energy prizes are one of the most important parts, budgetable as our finance department calls it.
2. Diverse portfolio is the second, Europe went to deep into Russia’s gas, which turned out to be costly.
Let us all learn from this, because healthy societies has healthy manufacturers as a foundation.
