EU climate chief warns there is ‘no workaround’ for high energy prices

{"text":[[{"start":9.98,"text":"There is no financial “workaround” for “mind-boggling” energy price rises in Europe, and the latest crisis shows the need to reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels through green investments, the EU’s climate commissioner has warned. "}],[{"start":26.96,"text":"Speaking to the FT as the EU grapples with a €22bn price shock from the war in the Middle East, Wopke Hoekstra said Europe was “overburdened with debt” and that countries’ weak public finances limited their ability to support citizens."}],[{"start":44.150000000000006,"text":"On a visit to cleantech businesses Ecocem and Verkor in Dunkirk, Hoekstra said: “The only way forward is more electrification, more nuclear, more solar, more wind, more battery capacity, more interconnectors in the European Union, and all of it with much more speed.” "}],[{"start":62.49000000000001,"text":"The comments come as the European Commission prepares to recommend widespread electrification plans to member states next week to tackle surging energy costs and fossil fuel reliance. "}],[{"start":74.98,"text":"According to a draft copy of proposals to cut fossil fuel use, the commission will propose new rules to drive down costs of transporting electricity, or grid charges, and to ensure electricity is taxed below fossil fuels. "}],[{"start":91.41,"text":"Since the beginning of the conflict, the EU’s bill for fossil-fuel imports has increased by €22bn compared with the equivalent period before the war, commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said. "}],[{"start":106.09,"text":"The commission has proposed more flexible state aid rules until the end of the year for the maritime, fishing, agricultural and other sectors, according to a document seen by the FT. "}],[{"start":118.73,"text":"But it has called on member states to use “targeted and temporary” support, after many countries spent large sums of money protecting consumers and industry in previous crises — including the Covid pandemic and the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine."}],[{"start":136.18,"text":"Hoekstra said member states had “a relatively free hand” to take short-term measures to “drive down at least part of the increase of the prices”. But large deficits in countries such as France and Italy leave them constrained in trying to implement the kind of support schemes used in the previous energy crisis in 2022-23. "}],[{"start":158.72,"text":"Regardless of EU efforts to cut tax on electricity or network costs, “citizens are still being confronted with a price of a raw material that has gone up dramatically. That is something [for which] there is no workaround,” he said."}],[{"start":174.05,"text":"Several EU finance ministers have asked the Commission to impose an EU-wide windfall tax on energy companies profiting from surging prices, as they did in 2022."}],[{"start":185.70000000000002,"text":"However, Hoekstra, a former Shell employee and finance minister in his native Netherlands, said that “the first analyses show it’s legally complicated [and] has significant economic side-effects . . . it’s a domain where we have to tread very, very carefully”, he said."}],[{"start":203.10000000000002,"text":"Despite the price shock, he welcomed renewed support for renewable energies and nuclear power, “even from countries that were previously sceptics”. "}],[{"start":213.44000000000003,"text":"Last month, von der Leyen said recent closures of nuclear plants in European countries such as her native Germany were a “mistake”. Officials in France, which has long maintained the need for more investment in nuclear and benefits from some of the lowest energy prices in the bloc, have welcomed the pro-nuclear shift. "}],[{"start":233.87000000000003,"text":"“It’s quite hard to ignore the huge ramifications of the dependency that we have, right? Regardless of whether you’re leftwing or rightwing or whether you are in the north or the south of Europe,” Hoekstra added."}],[{"start":248.32000000000002,"text":"As climate commissioner, Hoekstra is also overseeing the revision of the bloc’s emissions trading system, which is designed to stimulate green investment by levying carbon costs on polluting industries. "}],[{"start":263.05,"text":"The review, due by the summer, is at the heart of a political battle in Brussels between more polluting member states and those that have decarbonised and do not wish to see the scheme dismantled."}],[{"start":276.89,"text":"Hoekstra said he was “sympathetic” to the arguments of heavy industry faced with high energy prices but that any “flexibility” on extending free allowances beyond the current date of 2034 would be linked to businesses investing in decarbonising."}],[{"start":294.28999999999996,"text":"Noting that 90 per cent of revenue received by states from the emissions trading system does not go into “industrial transformation”, he said: “If you allow for flexibility or allow for free allowances, it makes sense to have as a quid pro quo that companies become cleaner and invest in Europe.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":323.96,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1776323568_9045.mp3"}