As Russia tightens gas supply, Europe, and particularly Germany, are likely heading for the coldest winter in post-war history.
With autumn just around the corner, the German government has rolled out nationwide measures to limit heating in public buildings. Close to 200,00o buildings will be affected by the decision taken by the country’s “Ministry of Economy and Climate Action,” the German state broadcaster ARD confirmed Friday.
The move will be in addition to sweeping energy cuts already announced by several big German cities, including Berlin, Munich and Nuremberg. Kindergarten, schools, gym, swimming pools and public offices will have to do without warm water. Cities will also be cutting on street lights and lighting of public monuments, including Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate.
The German public broadcaster DW News reported the last nationwide measures:
Germany’s Economy Minister Robert Habeck announced plans to limit heating in public buildings come winter and turn off some lights at night to conserve gas supplies in an interview with German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.”Public properties, with the exception of hospitals and other parts of the social system, of course, will only be heated to 19 degrees Celsius,” or 66 degrees Fahrenheit, Habeck said.His comments come after Russia has moved towards reducing and potentially cutting supplies to Germany in what could be seen as retaliation for Berlin canceling the Nord Stream 2 pipeline following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Buildings, monuments and advertisements will also no longer be illuminated at night as part of the latest energy saving measures, Habeck said. (…)The government has also launched a campaign of public service announcements aimed at convincing the public to do its part to save energy.
“The electricity and gas prices are going through the roof,” the German newspaper Bild wrote Friday. “The electricity already costs more than four times as much as it did a year ago, and gas seven folds as much.”
If this wasn’t painful enough for ordinary Germans, the government is now charging them a ‘surcharge’ to save country’s big energy concerns, many of which made huge profits doing business with Kremlin, from going bankrupt. “And on top of that there’s the new gas surcharge, which is supposed to save suppliers from bankruptcy,” the newspaper noted.
The economic indicators are just as worrying, with economists predicting steep price rise and rising unemployment. “The Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW) has warned of the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, and double-digit inflation rates due to high gas prices,” the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper reported Thursday.
As winter approaches, the rationing of electricity, gas and heating will not limited to Germany. Last month, all 27 member of the European Union agreed to a Europe-wide energy rationing plan to cope with dwindling Russian supplies.
EU members “backed a voluntary 15% reduction in gas usage over the winter, a target that could become mandatory if the Kremlin ordered a complete shutdown of gas to Europe,” the British newspaper Guardian reported July 26.
As Russia wages war in Ukraine, Kremlin-controlled energy giants Gazprom has reduced Europe’s natural gas supply through its main Nord Steam pipeline to merely 20 percent of its capacity.
[Excerpts from German media reports translated by the author]
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