The recent surge in energy prices has prompted many governments to introduce emergency measures to reduce the impact on consumers’ electricity and gas bills. In its REPowerEU Communication of 8 March 2022, the European Commission confirmed that price regulation can be used to mitigate the effect of higher energy prices on consumers’ bills. However, most government interventions and what the Commission refers to are measures to reduce the energy prices facing consumers. This type of measures weakens the incentives to save energy, and therefore runs counter to the more general energy policy objectives of sustainability and security of supply, including the reduction of the European Union’s dependence on Russia. In this Policy Brief, a more targeted approach, based on lump-sum rebate payments, which protects energy-poor consumers from unaffordable energy bills, while maintaining the incentives to save energy, is proposed.
As stated by the OECD, “water security in many regions will continue to deteriorate due to increasing water demand, water stress and water pollution.” Indeed water supply and sanitation (WSS) [...]
Electricity is used for railway traction. With the 4th Railway Package, traction current became excluded from the Minimum Access Package to be provided by the Infrastructure Managers (IMs) and was [...]
Transforming Europe into a climate neutral economy by 2050 in line with the European Green Deal places a particular responsibility on the transport sector, which accounts for a quarter of [...]
The European Union (EU) is likely to face a gas supply-demand gap of 27 bcm in 2023-2024. This gap could be reduced by enhancing its partnership with oil and gas [...]
New European rules are being developed to shape electricity market design in a way that improves TSO- DSO coordination, makes efficient use of distribution-connected resources, and empowers the smallest network [...]
Having identified the basic characteristics of the current energy crisis and its particular shape in the European Union, three questions immediately arise. 1) If gas is at the ‘core’ of [...]
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