Making This Fossil Fuel Crisis Europe’s Last One

More than 100 organizations and businesses have sent a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, asking her to commission an independent, science-based plan to end Europe's reliance on fossil fuels for good. The letter argues that this summer's fuel price spike has cost European households and businesses more than €50 billion in extra energy costs, on top of a deadly wave of heat, wildfires, and drought that the letter says killed at least 14,000 people in Europe during a June heatwave alone.

The groups want the requested report to lay out a full accounting of what fossil fuel dependence costs households, industry, and governments each year, then chart the fastest realistic path off fossil fuels using renewables, energy efficiency upgrades, better grids, and recycling-based industry, rather than unproven technologies. They also want the plan to redirect government subsidies away from fossil fuels, protect lower-income households and workers during the shift, and invest more in natural approaches like forests, wetlands, and green spaces that absorb carbon and cool cities cheaply.

This is a European policy push, not a program homeowners can apply to. There's no funding, rebate, or deadline here for individual households. But it signals that European leaders are under pressure to move faster on the kind of home energy efficiency and clean-power investments that, over time, tend to translate into rebate programs and incentives at the national level. Homeowners in EU countries may see more movement on this front depending on how their own government responds.