The two institutions advise to lower the heating, to resort to teleworking or to drive more slowly on the motorway.
Adjusting the heating or air conditioning, driving slower, telecommuting more often: the “small gesturescan save a lot of energy in Europe and reduce dependence on Russia, argued Thursday the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the European Commission. “We tell how European citizens can play a part, saving money, reducing dependence on Russian energy and helping to achieve our climate goals“, explained the executive director of the IEA, Fatih Birol, presenting nine simple gestures that can be implemented on a daily basis, during a conference.
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These gestures can allow a European household to save on average more than 450 euros per year and avoid the use of 220 million barrels of oil per year, according to the two partners. The IEA thus suggests lowering the heating (and using less air conditioning in the summer), better adjusting the water heater or even resorting to teleworking.
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Several pieces of advice concern the car: use it more economically (carpooling, less air conditioning), slow down on the highway and leave it in the garage on Sundays when you live in town. Finally, the agency advocates walking or cycling for short journeys, the use of public transport and the use of the train (rather than the plane) for journeys of less than 1000 km.
“Practical, easy to implement”
«These suggestions are practical, easy to implement and have already been applied several times in different contexts.“Said Fatih Birol, referring to the fight against pollution peaks or the savings implemented in the 1970s in the face of the oil shock. “We are in my opinion in the first global energy crisis and it seems that this crisis could last a while“, he warned.
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The IEA, which recently published plans to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian gas and oil, stressed that it was up to national and local authorities to encourage energy savings. In Italy, for example, the government has launched athermostat operationand wants to lower the air conditioning in buildings this summer. Luxembourg Minister Claude Turmes pleaded on Thursday for actions “coordinatesat European level, for example for speed limits or temperature control in public buildings.
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