By the EESC Workers' Group

Europe finds itself in a difficult situation after many years of negligence and unfounded optimism on energy issues. Fuelled by shutdowns of nuclear facilities that were mostly replaced with gas or coal (and with tens of thousands of premature deaths added each year), an addiction to natural gas as an easy and cheap (and lately, also green) alternative, and an energy market ill-designed for crises or for providing high shares of renewables, frost this winter looks particularly menacing.

These ingredients, set on fire by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, have made transport and energy prices skyrocket. Together with the price spikes for many basic food products due to disturbances in the global food chain, inflation has reached levels not seen in decades. The steep rise in prices affects, first and foremost, the most vulnerable populations who already had no margins for increasing energy, transport and food costs. Not to speak of the likely starvation and hunger in the rest of the world where spending extra is not a possibility.

As our companies struggle to continue under severe cost hikes, and our citizens and workers doubt if they will be able to turn on heating this winter, the initiative on REPowerEU and that on reforming the energy market are a welcomed relief. Green and just transitions have become not only a climate necessity but also a social and geopolitical one. Without decisive action to break away from fossil fuels, our political systems will likely collapse long before we reach any climate targets. (prp)