Energy prices and climate crises must be tackled together

At a crunch meeting today, EU energy ministers will discuss Europe-wide responses to skyrocketing energy prices.

Ministers are expected to consider options including windfall taxes and targets to reduce demand.

The meeting comes after a summer of climate chaos with heatwaves, wildfires, floods and droughts in Europe and around the world, including devastating flooding in Pakistan.

Ahead of the extraordinary Energy Council, Colin Roche, climate justice and energy coordinator for Friends of the Earth Europe commented:

“It is critical that action on the energy price crisis and the climate crisis go hand-in-hand – governments must tackle these together.

“Measures to lessen the impact of record energy prices on citizens are vital, but we’re still not hearing anything like enough to end Europe’s dependency on fossil fuels.

“Ministers need to agree urgent measures to protect the millions of households already living in energy poverty and the millions more facing it this winter, and they should also set a phase-out date for use of fossil gas. This should be accompanied by a massive programme of renewables and building renovation to transform Europe’s broken energy system for good – anything less will leave us facing price volatility and climate chaos for years to come.”