The fossil fuel price shock triggered by the war on Iran has exposed Europe’s dangerous reliance on oil and gas. But rather than treating it as a warning, governments across the EU are doubling down – with plans to build almost 60 gigawatts of new gas plants that could lock the continent into fossil fuel dependence for decades to come, a new analysis cautions.
The ‘Merchants of Crisis’ report, published by campaign group Beyond Fossil Fuels (BFF) on 15 June, finds that the planned gas plants, if built, would burn around 28 billion cubic metres of gas every year – equivalent to around nine per cent of the EU’s projected gas imports, or the annual gas consumption of 46.4 million households.
Natural gas prices in Europe have already risen by 60 per cent since the outbreak of the war, with Europe entering the crisis with much lower gas storage levels than in recent years – 46 billion cubic metres at the end of February 2026, compared with 60 billion cubic metres a year earlier.
Households and businesses are bearing the brunt with spiking energy bills and a deepening cost of living crisis.
“Building more gas plants will not protect people in Europe from future energy crises – it will deepen our dependence on volatile fossil fuel imports, while energy companies profit,” says Juliet Phillips, energy campaigner at Beyond Fossil Fuels. “The real solution is establishing a strategy to phase out fossil fuels while accelerating progress on renewables, storage, grids and clean flexibility.”
