Brussels – The European Commission’s plan to tackle the energy crisis is too late and too light to deal with the scale of the problem, and does too little to solve Europe’s structural dependence on fossil fuels, Greenpeace has warned.
Greenpeace EU climate and energy campaigner Thomas Gelin said: “The Commission recognises the danger of the EU’s fossil fuel addiction, but is doing too little to root it out. Governments must protect vulnerable people from price spikes, but there’s a risk that untargeted measures just subsidise the oil and gas industry and pad their profits even more. Renewables, insulation, public transport and cutting energy waste are the quickest ways to break Europe’s dependence on fossil fuels, and stabilise people’s bills – the EU must act decisively and permanently on these, and tax oil and gas companies’ obscene profits to pay for it.”
The European Commission’s plan acknowledges the systemic threat fossil fuels pose to the EU’s prosperity and security, and highlights that countries with more renewable energy are suffering less in the crisis. Greenpeace is warning that the Commission lumps renewables and nuclear together, while nuclear is too slow and too expensive to deploy to cut fossil fuel imports or bring down people’s bills.
The plan focuses on short-term measures to deal with the immediate crisis, on managing stocks of oil, gas and jet fuel, as well as some recommendations to national governments on how to save energy.
Fossil fuel profit tax
Greenpeace is calling for a tax on all the profits of fossil fuel companies, not just windfall profits, and on top of standard corporate taxation. A top-up tax could potentially raise hundreds of billions of euro to finance the energy transition, while also discouraging further new fossil fuel investments. A 20% top-up tax on the global profits of the world’s 100 largest oil and gas companies could have generated an additional US$1.08 trillion in revenue, had it been applied since the Paris climate agreement in 2015.
Next steps
Heads of EU governments will discuss the Commission’s energy crisis plan at a summit in Cyprus starting tomorrow.
Contacts:
Thomas Gelin, Greenpeace EU climate and energy campaigner: +32 473 57 04 46, [email protected]
Greenpeace EU press desk: +32 (0)2 274 1911, [email protected]
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Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace. We do not accept donations from governments, the EU, businesses or political parties. Greenpeace has over three million supporters, and 26 independent national and regional organisations with offices in more than 55 countries.
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