The latest year’s energy crisis shook European economies and politics, with governments acting swiftly to protect households, especially vulnerable ones, from bearing the full economic impact of the rise in energy prices. A large proportion of EU Member States focused their interventions on reducing energy prices in an attempt to contain inflation and control the spread of high energy price impacts to the rest of their economies.
More than one year into the crisis, the results of these interventions have led to differentiated impacts on households’ budgets, inflation rates and public budgets among Europe. Recently, many calls have been made for decreasing energy tax breaks and for increasing the support to vulnerable populations through targeted income measures, as well as continuing to promote alternative energy sources and transportation modes.
What can we learn from national experiences on what could be considered adequate fixes to the energy crisis for households? Which policies can be used to protect standards of living and favour the transition away from fossil energy? Should European countries further coordinate their energy interventions aimed at households? Also, how important will the reform of the EU electricity market be in this context?
The discussion will start with the presentation of a new study on the distributional impact on European households of the energy crisis published by the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3).
Moderator: Nicolas Berghmans, Lead European affairs and energy and climate expert, IDDRI, France
Scene-setting presentation: “Distributional impact on European households of the energy crisis”
Mikel Gonzales, Senior researcher, BC3 (Basque Centre for Climate Change)
Policy Panel
Anette Persson, Policy officer Energy efficiency: Buildings and Products at European Commission DG ENERGY
Claudia Strambo, Research Fellow, SEI
Oskar Ahnfelt, Vice President Public & Regulatory Affairs, Vattenfall
Isabell Büschel, Spain Director, T&E (Transport & Environment)
Rapporteur: Tomas Jungwirth, Head of the AMO Climate Team
