Considering the importance of energy in any economy and, in particular, the shocking costs associated with the so-called “energy transition” for the European economies, it seems necessary to review the situation.

First, energy and electricity prices have been rising in the EU for several years, sometimes manyfold, because of the ongoing implementation of EU Green Deal, the EU 2030 goals, and Net Zero for 2050 plans, combined with other also purely political factors. It is estimated that the net zero and energy transition policy in Europe today represents up to 40 percent of many electricity bills of Europeans who already have difficulty making ends meet.

The “Polycrisis” Is Now the Excuse for Interventionism

In “Turning the European Green Deal into Reality” (2023) from Strategic Perspectives—an EU-centered, climate-focused policy think tank driving effective climate action and the transition to net-zero emissions in Europe—the following is claimed:

EU decision-makers have put Europe on an irreversible decarbonisation trajectory. On a continent with limited gas and oil resources, Europeans have no interest in going back to the pre-war status quo. What hubris of the “anointed” (to use Thomas Sowell’s expression) is necessary by an unelected globalist think tank, to subjectively assert such a direction on behalf of all the European peoples. This, unfortunately, is the norm. Further, the executive summary states that, not only climate change is driving energy transition now, because it is a “polycrisis”:

The COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the cost of living crisis, as well as industrial competition from the US and China, have not lowered the importance of the European climate agenda. On the contrary, the European Green Deal has proven to be a unifying solution to the multiple crises facing Europe, including economic recovery from the pandemic, climate change, high dependency on energy from Russia and competition on net-zero technologies from China and the US. …

What has been described above is massive interventionism pushed to the point of fascist capitalism—when banks, enterprises, and state interests become intertwined, driven by the globalist project in a coercive and corrupt relationship of dependency. Freedom—both political and economic—is the obvious victim, as more and more Europeans are starting to realize.

What is not clear is the actual added value to European societies by these massive spending programs. Not only will the direct cost of doing business in Europe increase generally, but they will inevitably create distortions in the European economies, favoring certain sectors and regions at the expense of others, whatever the stated efforts by the globalist planners to spread the costs evenly. Some clever entrepreneurs are of course benefitting handsomely. Some sectors—like renewable energy, batteries, building renovation, AI, and EVs—are getting a significant boost, while other sectors and businesses that are considered unimportant or negative in terms of energy transition will suffer.

Since the European market has little natural demand for this energy transformation or the goods associated with it, then the social and economic utility of this plan can be seriously questioned. Overall, these programs will burden European societies with even more costs—and completely unnecessary costs at that—in an environment of strong competition from other parts of the world, such as the US and China.

These massive spending plans have been implemented now for several years and cannot be stopped; the political will to resist them and the economic incentive to embrace them are simply too strong. The Europeans obviously do not have much (if any) say in the matter, since these decisions are taken top-down and undemocratically from the Western oligarchy represented by the European Commission and the European Council. There is hardly a single political party in Europe that is voicing opposition to these plans, because that would be political suicide when the spigot is turned on.

As if the current dismal economic environment in Europe were not enough, these policies are going to saddle Europeans with even more debt for the foreseeable future, not to mention price inflation, price discoordination, and distortions in the structure or production. It will create artificial growth for a while, but make European companies even less competitive than before. This is a long-term recipe for continued European decline.