Understandable doomsday mood all over Europe, in anticipation of a crushing year ahead for many homeowners and their tenants. Even without factoring in coming restrictions to access to Russian natural gas, I think this is going to cause a lot of political turbulence—not to mention deaths and a surge in poverty. I don't know which countries will be hit the hardest, but it's likely poorer countries such as the UK and Eastern European countries will see more deaths than others.
European countries have scant hope of reducing their reliance on natural gas to any meaningful extent in time for next winter. Feel like most govts' best hope is to subsidize energy costs over the coming year, despite risk of perverse incentives and misallocation of public funds. But it won't be enough, and I wonder what the political consequences of people being driven into poverty—or outright dying—will be. Surging populism, protests in the streets. Many political actors will capitalize on this opportunity to criticize renewable energy agendas. I wonder whether eg. the EU's "Green Deal" renovation wave will be sufficient to counter those trends.
In Sweden, many homeowners have recently been hit by very high electricity bills, prompting the swift introduction of a temporary govt. subsidy which has been a little controversial. Much of this money has probably gone to households with large homes—and a lot of disposable income—who haven't seen fit to lock in previously very low electricity prices, or make reasonable upgrades. But what're you gonna do? The wealthy also vote.