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""Energy is life and life is energy. In the face of the current energy crisis, the EU's response of advocating energy savings to combat high prices falls short. This comprehensive report exposes the inherent flaws in the logic of energy austerity and reveals the risks the EU faces in meeting its energy demand. By demystifying EU energy policy, this study ignites the crucial debate on the necessity of a healthy and reliable energy mix."
Mr Rob Roos MEP
The modern world is built on energy. It would be almost impossible to find a single action undertaken right now across the whole EU that would be possible without a plentiful supply of energy. Not just heating our homes or charging our phones, but our roads, schools, hospitals and even our political institutions are the product of an era in which energy was available in relative abundance. This is a blessing to which it is almost impossible to do justice. This is Promethean fire writ large. Access to energy at this scale is perhaps the most impressive achievement of the modern world.
But such an achievement is a fragile one too. It relies on serious and sustained attention to the energy system, and on the right policies, technologies and attitudes that promote sensible investment in and maintenance of this almost unmatched good. When the system is infected by politicised goals – such as the logic of environmentalism – the result is a failure to secure the energy we need. This report explains this interplay in extensive detail.
Author: Professor James Woudhuysen, visiting professor, forecasting and innovation, London South Bank University
