Energy poverty is “a pre-existing problem” to the current energy price hike, which is linked to the inability of people to pay their fossil fuel bills, said Adela Tesarova, an official at the Commission’s energy department.

“We want to avoid that decarbonisation makes this problem worse,” she told a EURACTIV event held earlier this month, saying this is why the EU executive proposed creating a social climate fund worth €72.2 billion for the 2025-2035 period.

The ongoing energy price crisis has put energy poverty in the spotlight, with EU governments scrambling to alleviate the burden on the most vulnerable households with short-term measures such as direct income support.

Around 31 million Europeans are living in energy poverty and are unable to keep their homes adequately warm, according to Eurostat figures.

For the long term, the Commission tabled “structural measures” to boost energy efficiency and renewables, which will reduce Europe’s dependence on fossil fuels, Tesarova said.

“Moving away from fossil fuels is a way to eradicate energy poverty,” the official said, citing EU programmes helping people to insulate their homes and other initiatives to boost renewables.

Pawel Cioch, vice-president of Polish state-owned electricity company PGE, said high energy prices are a major driver of energy poverty.

In the case of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, energy expenditure already exceeds 20% of the average household budget, Cioch pointed out. And in the case of Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria, the share of energy expenditure is around 15%, he told participants at the EURACTIV event.

If green reforms at the EU level are not accompanied by financial support, he said, energy companies will have no choice but to increase prices in order to secure funding for new investment in clean energy.

“Of course we need to exit from fossil fuels,” she said. “But on the other side, there is society” and people who “already faced energy poverty before the energy price crisis,” she cautioned.

https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/europe-can-eradicate-energy-poverty-by-quitting-fossil-fuels-eu-official/

Bunch of people enemies and degenerates rule the EU.