Von der Leyen recently mothballed the energy transition, which piece by piece is being dismantled, frozen, denied
When the legislature led by the German Ursula von der Leyen began in Europe in 2019 – and supported by a parliamentary force that united popular and socialists passing through liberals and greens – the cornerstone of political action was centered on the so-called energy transition, that is, the transition from polluting fossil fuels to renewables.
Everyone more or less agreed, also driven by street demonstrations that accused politicians of complicity in doing little or nothing to stop gaseous emissions into the atmosphere, and therefore the rise in global temperatures.
Not even the time to implement a series of measures (some of which were not well thought out, indeed) before the continent and the entire world were hit by two completely extraordinary situations: the Covid 19 pandemic – a real social and economic shock – and in February 2022 the Russian invasion of Ukraine, i.e. a democratic country bordering the European Union.
Of course, the latter was a legislature with incredible characteristics: it dealt with a terrible and unknown virus with some success; we rushed to the aid of our Ukrainian neighbor, with extensive military and economic support, as well as welcoming several million refugees who had fled the war.
In the meantime, the energy transition was still progressing at a good pace, with a series of clear and final decisions: goodbye to thermal engines from 2035, goodbye to boilers powered by fossil fuels, a clear cut to agricultural subsidies and more. Decisions violently thrown into crisis with the stop to Russian imports of methane and oil: we did not have sufficient energy capacity produced from renewable sources, we looked for fossil ones around the world at a very high price.
We were saying that the transition was poorly thought out. One example above all, a very current one: the large oil groups have fled the refining sector. Why invest in something that is running out of stock? It’s a shame that the market is still made up of over 90% of petrol and diesel vehicles. The great thing is that there is an industrial quantity of oil around the world. But we lack the capacity to refine it, and therefore to produce petrol and diesel. Hence the very high prices at the pump these days.
The fact is that in the last three years European consumers have paid impressive sums for home heating, electricity, wheeled mobility, agricultural processing, practically almost all the products whose prices have skyrocketed after many years of deflation. In short, many are paying the price of the situation, in some cases not really understood.
The fact is also that consumers are also voters. In their respective countries and, in June, to renew the European Parliament. The anti-system parties and adept at harvesting stomach aches are flying everywhere. In Holland they won the elections, as well as in Slovakia; in France, Germany and Austria they have risen to worrying levels… so that it didn’t take long for politicians’ noses to smell the air of change.
Von der Leyen recently mothballed the energy transition, which piece by piece is being dismantled, frozen, denied. Now we await the outcome of the upcoming elections, but the outgoing majority will almost certainly not be reconfirmed. New balances, new leaders, new objectives. Definitely a lesson to learn: when you make revolutions, you need to be well prepared. Otherwise we risk glorifying Robespierre and ultimately finding ourselves Napoleon.
