Energy

To weather the COVID-19 crisis, Europe's energy-poor urgently need a green bailout – providing decent, zero-carbon homes for all, writes Clémence Hutin.

Luc Triangle, General Secretary of industriAll (the Trade Union Federation of Trade Unions in the manufacturing, mining and energy sectors) reminds us: "decarbonisation is not happening in a social vacuum. Years of austerities have increased precariousness and inequalities while weakening public services and threatening workers' rights".

Samantha Mason from the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS, UK) focuses in her contribution on the importance of the transformation of the energy sector in our struggle to stop net CO2 emissions. Hereby she stresses one of the most urgent, and often neglected, points that we cannot rely on decentralised transformatory solutions only.

Melina Kerou on the "The Green and Social New Deal for Europe" policy plan released by the left fraction in the European Parliament GUE/NGL.

In times of an urgent climate crisis and climate movements, the calls for alternatives to dirty fossil fuels become louder and louder. The biggest climate enemies we know about so far are oil and coal. They emit considerable amounts of CO2 and we will inevitably have to stop using them to keep global temperatures within livable ranges.

On 5 December 2016, transform! europe, the Brussels office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and MEP Cornelia Ernst (GUE/NGL) held a European conference dedicated to the notion of a socially just energy transition.

Approximately 11% of the population in the European Union suffers from energy poverty or is acutely threatened by it. – A Workshop on energy poverty was organized by the delegation DIE LINKE. in the European Parliament, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Brussels and transform! europe.

Left-wing forces at the European level are addressing the growing problem of energy poverty. That is one of the key findings of the strategic workshop titled “The Future of Renewables and the Electricity Market Design in the European Union”, which was held at the European Parliament in Brussels on 27 June 2016.

Under the auspices of MEP Cornelia Ernst (GUE/NGL), the transform! Working Group on Energy presented its latest publication to representatives of European progressive civil society and members of the European Parliament Committee on Industry, research and Energy (ITRE). Deployment of the energy transition towards a new model of development, energy democracy and citizens’ initiatives, the crucial role of public research – these issues were at the heart of the discussions held on June 14.

In the aftermath of the kick-off workshop of the transform! / Akademia Working Group on Energy, the diversity and the richness of the contributions led us to compile them into an e-book. It does not pretend to be exhaustive, but rather to nourish the necessary diversity of the on-going discussions within the European progressive political sphere, as well of those of social movements and trade unions. It will be available on free access on the website of transform! europe in December.

Energy and climate-related issues are at the top of the political agenda in 2015, as is shown by the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) to be held in Paris by the end of the year and the European Commission’s Energy Union strategy.

The publication starts with more general perspectives and the consequences of climate change for Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Bulgaria and continues in a second part with energy, using the examples of Croatia, Bulgaria, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. An eDossier by Bilten in cooperation with transform! europe.

Solving Energy Poverty could be one of the biggest achievements of the 21st century. Rising energy costs and falling household incomes make energy poverty a growing concern in the European Union. This means that approximately 11% of the population in the EU is not able to adequately heat or cool their homes at affordable costs.