According to calculations by the digital media company Table.Media based on data from the Federal Network Agency, Germany has failed to meet the European Union’s (EU) targets for saving electricity. Consumption should have fallen by ten percent since November. In fact, demand for electricity fell by just 7.6 percent in November and 4.4 percent in December.
At the end of September, the EU energy ministers agreed to voluntarily reduce electricity consumption by ten percent by the end of 2023. The comparison period is the average monthly consumption from the five previous years.
The goal is a “lower demand for electricity and thus lower energy prices,” it said in the agreement. In addition, the resolution is intended to help reduce gas consumption in power generation. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen justified the political push to save electricity with security of supply. “If we reduce demand at peak times, the supply will last longer and this will lower prices,” she said on the state of the European Union in mid-September before the EU Parliament.
Republican Kevin McCarthy has most likely failed at the first attempt in the election to the chair of the US House of Representatives. McCarthy missed the required majority for the powerful office in the United States in the vote in the inaugural session of the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
China has long quietly supported Russia’s war in Ukraine. Then there was clear resentment when Xi condemned Putin’s nuclear threats. Now the uncanny dictator friendship should flourish again.
