Europe has made \u201cstaggering progress\u201d in producing clean power but neglected efforts to phase out fuel-burning machines, the head of an industry group said as the global oil crisis deepens.<\/p>\n
Adrian Hiel, director of the Electrification Alliance, said the EU has \u201cradically transformed\u201d its power supply and must now focus on getting \u201cmore electricity into the stuff we use every day\u201d.<\/p>\n
The sluggish pace of electrification has left households exposed to higher bills as the Iran war has sent oil and gas prices soaring<\/a> just four years after the last energy crisis. On Friday, the International Energy Agency said a faster shift to electric cars and heat pumps would complement its drastic fuel-saving action plan<\/a> to quell the price shock.<\/p>\n \u201cAct one was cleaning up our power supply,\u201d said Hiel. \u201cAct two is getting that clean European electricity into buildings, industry and transport. It\u2019s a completely different challenge that we haven\u2019t really faced off with yet.\u201d<\/p>\n The EU adds almost enough solar panels and wind turbines<\/a> each year to meet its green goals but has been reluctant to replace the petrol cars and gas boilers keeping it hooked on foreign fuels that foul the air.<\/p>\n A graph showing the percentage of electricity generation by means of production<\/a><\/p>\n Hiel said the response to the last energy crisis was \u201cpanicky\u201d but spurred an expansion of renewable energy that had left Europe better prepared for this crisis. Now, high taxes on electricity were among the biggest barriers to the green transition, he added.<\/p>\n \u201cThirty years ago, our electricity was coal-fired and dirty and bad for your health \u2013 it made sense to treat it like alcohol and tobacco,\u201d he said. \u201cBut now it\u2019s the healthy option. We need to tax it like a fresh apple.\u201d<\/p>\n EU leaders have acknowledged the disparity in energy taxes threatens the strategic goals of clean air and secure energy. On Thursday, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said she would make sure \u201celectricity is taxed less than fossil fuels\u201d by mandating lower rates.<\/p>\n The Electrification Alliance includes industry associations such as SolarPower Europe and the International Copper Association Europe, as well as Transport & Environment, a climate thinktank. The group has called for a faster switch to an economy powered by decarbonised electricity.<\/p>\n Hiel said the fall in the cost of clean technology has made it easier for people to ditch fossil fuels in this crisis than in the last. After world leaders signed the Paris climate agreement in 2015, he gave himself 10 years to \u201cget the direct combustion of fossil fuels\u201d out of his life entirely, and in recent weeks has insulated his home and installed a heat pump and solar panels.<\/p>\n He said the combination of energy savings, a reduction in his mortgage rate, and an upfront grant mean he is \u201cbasically completely insulated\u201d from the energy crisis.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2015, it was going to be a real sacrifice \u2013 the costs were enormous and it was never going to pay back \u2013 whereas now it\u2019s completely different,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to cost me a cent overall.\u201d<\/p>\n The US-Israel war on Iran, which began in late February, provoked retaliatory strikes that shut the strait of Hormuz<\/a>, through which 20% of the world\u2019s oil and seaborne gas flows. In recent days, attacks on major refineries<\/a> throughout the Middle East \u2013 including in Qatar, a key supplier of Europe\u2019s liquefied natural gas (LNG) \u2013 have led analysts to fear high fuel prices will persist even if the war soon ends.<\/p>\n \u201cGas is going to get rather expensive as we outbid Asia for it, and it is likely to stay expensive for the next several years,\u201d said Hiel. \u201cThat is going to put a lot of pressure on governments to help households pay their bills, which could make it more difficult for them to spend money on helping people electrify their homes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Europe has made \u201cstaggering progress\u201d in producing clean power but neglected efforts to phase out fuel-burning machines, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-556328","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}