An Editorial by Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition
The latest conflict in Iran and the Middle East is once again hitting European households and businesses where it hurts: energy prices and security of supply.
Russia’s aggression on Ukraine just a few years ago. The oil shocks of the 1970s. The crisis over the Suez Canal in the 1950s. Different geography, different political reasons but the underlying vulnerability is always that we pay the price.
The numbers are quite telling. Half of all energy consumed in Europe is imported fossil fuels, one of the highest dependency ratios in the world. Every year, Europe imports annually €375 billion of fossil fuels. Instead, that same import bill could finance the electrification of our economy, supporting our industries, citizens and future. And there is a structural truth that can’t be changed: Europe will always pay more for fossil fuels it does not produce. This is not bad luck. It is the price of dependency.
But the world is changing in ways that offer Europe a genuine alternative.
Just as the Industrial Revolution and the Oil Era reshaped economies and rewrote the global order, the Age of Electricity is doing so right now. Renewables are already the cheapest source of new electricity generation in most parts of the world, with solar and wind below €40 per megawatt-hour. With current high oil prices, every kilometre driven in a petrol car can easily cost twice as much as an EV would. And at home, a heat pump delivers warmth at lower cost per degree than a gas boiler, as replacing gas and oil boilers with heat pumps would cut final energy costs in those buildings by up to 60%. Cleaner, cheaper, and made in Europe: the clean energy economy already employs 3.8 million Europeans and is growing. This is not sacrifice. This is not a distant promise. It is the smartest investment this continent can make.
Europe’s electrification rate has been stagnating at around 23% for over a decade. We cannot afford to fall behind others in the technologies defining the next era. Europe needs to act.
This is why the Green Deal has never been just a climate agenda: it is a Freedom Deal. Freedom from volatile high energy prices dictated by distant conflicts. Freedom from weaponised supply chains. Freedom from the coercion and dependencies. The wind and the sun are not trapped in the Strait of Hormuz.
And Europe is better placed to lead the electrification revolution than most realise. We operate the largest interconnected electricity grid in the world with roughly twice the density of the United States or China. We are the most energy-efficient major economy in terms of energy per unit of GDP, second to the EU is Japan, 25% higher. We already export €80 billion annually in clean technology products. We are predictable and reliable. These are not aspirations. These are assets.
But we must move faster. Europe’s electrification rate has been stagnating at around 23% for over a decade. We cannot afford to fall behind others in the technologies defining the next era. Europe needs to act.
That means concrete actions such as taxing electricity less than fossil fuels, phasing-out fossil fuel subsidies, putting the European Grids Package into motion to build the grids and interconnectors Europe needs, deploying the €100 billion Industrial Decarbonisation Bank to support industry electrification, setting clear electrification target for Europe, expanding support for technologies as EVs and heat pumps through financial instruments, social leasing scheme, tax relief and market based mechanisms as well as setting clear EU targets that give industry and investors the certainty they need to act. The European Commission will present soon its Electrification Action Plan to make this electrification revolution a reality in Europe.
The choice is ours. The window for action is now. Every year of delay will be another year of higher cost for society, another year of exposure to crises we do not choose, and another year of ground ceded to competitors who are not waiting for us. We can seize now the opportunity electrification offers.
Photo: © Aurore Martignoni
