Finance & economics | Power outrage

Can Europe keep the lights on this winter?

The energy crunch intensifies

Moonlit and Twilight III' - A house on Henley Lane at night during the Covid-19 lockdown, showing windows illuminated from within. The Picturing Lockdown Collection was created during April and May 2020, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. During seven days the public were asked to submit photographs that they felt best represented their experiences of lockdown in England, and from these submissions one hundred representing all the different geographic regions were chosen to be archived with Historic England. Alongside these images, ten artists were commissioned to produce their own images over the course of five days, representing their lockdown experience. These were supplemented with images by Historic Englands own photographers. Together, the Picturing Lockdown collection forms a permanent visual record of this unusual time in history. Artist James O Davies. (Photo by Historic England/Heritage Images via Getty Images)

Europe’s energy war is becoming total. Having already banned or promised to ban imports of Russian oil, leaders of the g7 group of countries said on June 28th that they would explore ways to cap its price, as well as that of Russian gas. Populations are being prepared for pain. Britain has hinted that it will reform its power market to curb the influence of natural gas on domestic prices. French utilities have called on consumers to cut energy use “immediately”. One goal of such manoeuvres is to deprive Russia of much-needed revenue. Another is to try to ward off the energy crunch that looms over Europe.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Power outrage”

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