The war in Ukraine and ensuing energy price increase is raising a number of urgent questions with regards to energy security.
No one knows what the future will bring, Paul Galles argued. What if Russia stops supplying? What if an embargo is decided? Claude Turmes, Minister for Energy, stressed that the security of supply was a clear priority and the government had a plan, namely the national energy and climate plan with its 50 measures which would now be accelerated. But there was also a plan for a serious emergency.
“In such a case, critical infrastructures like hospitals would get absolute priority, followed by residents, professionals and industry. I hope we will never have to implement this plan, but it exists and has been simulated with Creos.”
The war has put our energy system and energy security into question, said Paul Galles, citing some numbers to illustrate our dependency on Russia.
“41% of our gas is supplied by Russia, 26% of crude oil and 46% of our coal. So we have to ask ourselves what this will mean for us all over the next years.”
Claude Turmes agreed that we are too dependent on Russia for gas and this needs to change quickly.
“Gas usage in Europe is generally decreasing, it has been for a few years and will go down even more because of climate policy. Most of the gas is used for heating and increased energy efficiency means this will go down.”
The CSV proposed a resolution on Tuesday demanding a special commission to monitor the social and economic impact of the high energy prices, but this has not yet been adopted. Claude Turmes underlined that panic should be avoided and that while there had been a big price hike, this had already calmed down and the situation was constantly being monitored. It should not be forgotten that energy prices still remain much lower than in our neighbouring countries.
“Proportionally there is no other country that does as much against energy poverty. Automatic indexing, cost-of-living subsidies, we have specifically helped customers with gas prices, which increased much more than heating oil, and we have stabilised electricity prices.”
Should prices continue to go up, the government would of course react, Turmes said.
