{"id":59910,"date":"2021-10-16T06:56:58","date_gmt":"2021-10-16T11:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=59910"},"modified":"2021-10-16T06:56:58","modified_gmt":"2021-10-16T11:56:58","slug":"eu-fails-to-reduce-dependency-on-fossil-fuels-amid-soaring-energy-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=59910","title":{"rendered":"EU fails to reduce dependency on fossil fuels amid soaring energy bills"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"article-page__header article-page--header-extended\">\n<div class=\"article-page__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"article-page__title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opendemocracy.net\/en\/oureconomy\/eu-fails-to-reduce-dependency-on-fossil-fuels-amid-soaring-energy-bills\/\">EU fails to reduce dependency on fossil fuels amid soaring energy bills,\u00a0<\/a><\/h3>\n<div class=\"article-page__summary-container\">\n<div class=\"article-page__summary\">\n<div class=\"rich-text\">\n<p><strong>As the global energy crisis intensifies, the EU is renewing its commitment to fossil fuels instead of investing in green energy<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-page__wrapper article-page__article-content article-page--has-main-img\">\n<div class=\"article-page__main-img-container\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"None\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn2.opendemocracy.net\/media\/images\/2GXY39P.max-760x504.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn2.opendemocracy.net\/media\/images\/2GXY39P.max-1520x1008.jpg 2x,\n            https:\/\/cdn2.opendemocracy.net\/media\/images\/2GXY39P.max-760x504.jpg 1x\" alt=\"\" width=\"755\" height=\"504\" \/><figcaption>\n<div class=\"rich-text\">European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson speaks about European solutions to the rise of energy prices for businesses and consumers at the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, France October 6, 2021.<\/div>\n<p>|<\/p>\n<div class=\"rich-text\">Jean-Francois Badias\/Pool via REUTERS<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-page__sidebars-and-richtext\">\n<div class=\"article-page__middle-column\">\n<div class=\"article-page__rich-text\">\n<div class=\"rich-text\">\n<p>As Europeans suffer surging energy prices, the EU is renewing its commitment to costly natural gas instead of investing in cheap renewables, it has been revealed.<\/p>\n<p>A new investigation from Investigate Europe has found that lawmakers have paved the way for new cross-border pipelines, while EU auditors have highlighted a huge investment gap in green energy.<\/p>\n<p>Since the beginning of 2021, wholesale gas prices in Europe have soared by more than 300%. As natural gas is often used to generate electricity alongside heat, consumers have felt the full blow of the increase. In Spain, electric bills have risen by a third so far this year. In Italy, they are expected to jump by 40% in the next quarter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s situation underlines that we have to end our dependence on foreign, volatile fossil fuels as soon as possible,\u201d Kadri Simson, the EU commissioner for energy,<a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/commissioners\/2019-2024\/simson\/announcements\/remarks-commissioner-simson-following-informal-energy-and-transport-council-meeting_en\">\u00a0recently declared<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Natural gas accounts for a quarter of the EU\u2019s power mix, second only to oil. As of 2019, the majority of natural gas comes from Russia (41%) and, to a lesser extent, Norway (16%). Although it offers a lower-carbon alternative to coal, it contains high levels of methane, which contributes to global warming.<\/p>\n<p>The European Commission itself has admitted that its gas consumption is not compatible with its pledge to become climate neutral by 2050 and slash emissions by 55% before 2030. Its\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210814184818\/https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/clima\/sites\/clima\/files\/eu-climate-action\/docs\/impact_en.pdf\">own assessment<\/a>\u00a0concluded that gas consumption must be \u201creduced to a fraction of current levels\u201d to reach net-zero goals.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EU fails to reduce dependency on fossil fuels amid soaring energy bills,\u00a0 As the global energy crisis intensifies, the EU is renewing its commitment to fossil fuels instead of investing in green energy European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson speaks about European solutions to the rise of energy prices for businesses and consumers at the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[281,328,31975,30673,10696,31976,15442],"class_list":["post-59910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","tag-europe","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-maxence-peigne","tag-net-zero","tag-open-democracy","tag-re","tag-renewables"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59911,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59910\/revisions\/59911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}