It has been all hands on deck for the European Commission this month, as the EU’s executive branch tries to make it perfectly clear that clean energy policies are not responsible for the spike in prices.
Politicians like Hungary’s Viktor Orban, the Czech Republic’s Andrej Babis and Russia’s Vladimir Putin have in recent weeks suggested that the EU’s “misguided” attempts to decarbonise have burdened their citizens with inflated energy bills.
But that theory has already been widely debunked by both the Commission and energy analysts, who have calculated that the price spike is predominantly due to fossil gas shortages.
The EU’s carbon market, which charges big emitters for every tonne of pollution, has been trading at record highs but is only marginally responsible for pushing the price up, according to the Commission’s climate chief, Frans Timmermans, and green groups like Ember.
"It is responsible to a very small extent, a maximum is one fifth," Timmermans...