Photo by Anastasia Shuraeva.
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Europe still uses a lot of fossil fuels. Four years since Russian invaded Ukraine and threw European energy supply into chaos, one would think the continent would have electrified heating and transport more in order to quickly ween itself off of fossil fuel dependence. Well, Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), certainly thinks they should have done so.
Electricity’s share of overall energy use in the European Union (EU) is just about 23%, a relatively low electrification rate, especially for a place that has had such shocks in recent years from oil and gas dependence.
“This is in my view a major mistake for Europe,” Fatih Birol said. “In general, I would have hoped and expected that Europe would have been more responsive to this crisis.” Count us in. But Birol and the IEA saying this is a significantly bigger deal than someone like me saying this.
