Living Costs Escalate During European Union Energy Transition

Rising living expenses in the European Union (EU) are causing conflicts over climate mitigation efforts, with members like Germany and others expressing concerns. ⁽¹⁾

Consistent;y higher living expenses have deepened a rift among and within EU members about tackling climate change and moving away from oil, gas, and coal.

The development has been anything but surprising as higher energy costs have millions of Europeans struggling to make ends meet. Yet Brussels remains adamant that the transition must happen as planned.

This spring, the ruling coalition in Germany proposed a bill aiming to phase out gas heating systems and replace them with electrical ones that draw energy from sources such as wind and solar. The proposal caused protests in parts of Germany as people refused to shoulder the cost of retrofitting houses and residential buildings with heat pumps. Eventually, the German parliament passed a watered-down version of the proposal in a bid to calm public nerves. ⁽¹⁾

The law mandates that Germans with older heating systems replace them within a certain time period, although the final bill passed watered down some requirements and carved out some exceptions. Nevertheless, the final cost of the bill is still expected to be enormous, with high estimates placing it at 1 trillion euros and lower estimates hovering at 600 billion euros.

Many Germans, already struggling with inflation and a slowing economy, balked at the mandate to install new expensive heating systems, with the law being rejected by the majority of the populace. The government is also being accused of a hasty legislative process and a lack of parliamentary hearings, calling into question the democratic basis for the law in its entity.

Numbers of Germans have all of their savings in their home, and for many seniors, their homes, often featuring older heating systems, have seen their value take a hit due to the law. At the same time, in the coming years, they will be forced to make costly heating upgrades, usually in the form of a heat pump and the associated costs of making it work efficiently inside a building, to meet new green standards. Experts are also warning that landlords will have an incentive to increase rents in response to the Building Energy Act. ⁽²⁾

The proportion of poor people in Germany reached a new high last year, with the data highlighting a sea change in the German economy.This is only for data up until the end of 2021 before the dramatic increase in food and energy prices in 2022

Germany, for all its effort to reduce its dependence on hydrocarbons, also recently increased its dependence on coal: utility RWE recently began dismantling a wind farm in order to expand a lignite coal mine after the government shut down Germany's last three nuclear reactors. ⁽³⁾

An interesting tidbit with Germany: While Lufthansa has tried to do its bit to adapt sustainable practices, the company's chief says that switching the airline to green fuels like e-kerosene could come at a big price--half of Germany's electricity supply. ⁽⁴⁾

Support Canada Free Press

Essentially, to decarbonize Lufthansa about 30 million people would have to live in the dark. And we're only talking of decarbonizing the flights, not the manufacturing of planes, runways and airports.

France is also against some new climate policies pushed by Brussels, specifically rules concerning levels of exhaust pipe emissions, along with another seven member states. These include Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. ⁽¹⁾

The main problem these member states have is that the cost of the transition to net zero is already beginning to be felt by their citizens. Since no rational government would risk its re-election chances by angering the majority of voters, they are now looking for ways to slow these climate policies down or do away with them altogether.

Yet, as Bloomberg put it in a recent report, "Polls show most European voters want action on climate change as heat waves, wild fires, and floods make the impact of emissions ever clearer--but they're reluctant to bear the cost of switching to less polluting technology."

The same is true in the United States. An Associated Press poll revealed that only 38 percent of Americans are willing to pay even as little as $1 per month in higher energy costs to combat climate change. That is down 14 percentage points from 2018. ⁽⁵⁾

This is consistent with other polls by groups as disparate as the Washington Post and Competitive Enterprise Institute, which also reported that people are not so concerned about climate change they are willing to crack open their wallets for it.

Conclusion- Although folks say they are worried about climate change, most clearly aren't worried enough to put money on it, or make personal sacrifices for the cause. ⁽⁶⁾

References

1. Irina Slav, "Cost of living crisis threatens EU energy transition," oilprice.com, September13, 2023

2. Tyler Durden,"Germany passes controversial green heating law estimated to cost economy I trillion euros," zerohedge.com, September 12, 2023

3. Cosmin Dzsurdza, "Germany tearing down wind farm to build open pit coal mines," tnc.news, September 3, 2023

4. Prarthana Prakash, "German airline Lufthansa says it would consume half of Germany's electricity if it were to switch to green fuels," fortune.com, September 26, 2023

5. James Taylor,, "New polling shows truth is defeating climate alarmism," The Heartlander, September 2023

6. Steve Milloy, "Unsung zeroes: the top 10 under reported climate flops of 2021," junkscience.com, December 28, 2021

VIEW Comments