Welcome to the Winter Will Come Again podcast, where we will be exploring the story behind the energy crisis Europe faced the winter of 2022, its connection with plastic production and why, to ease Europe’s energy needs, plastic has to go. 

In 2022, once it became clear that Russian gas supplies were to be cut by at least 80%, energy costs in Europe surged. The debate around the energy crisis dominated policy and media spaces, and this in combination with the cost of living crisis that concerned countries throughout the continent, forced industry, businesses and individuals to adapt their behaviour as governments scrambled to secure gas reserves that would meet energy demands. 

What this scrambling looked like has an unlikely connection to plastic production: while in EU Member States like Germany, the general public was told that they should take cold showers and use less heat to reduce the overall fossil fuel consumption, the EU explored new trade deals to secure energy supplies for the colder months of the year, in particular with the United States and African countries like Senegal.

Not only did EU governments demand far more action from individual citizens than from industrial sectors that consume the lion’s share of fossil feedstock and energy, they also completely overlooked the huge potential to actually reduce fossil fuel consumption by tackling unnecessary use. 

What does unnecessary use look like? Well, if the global petrochemical producers were a country, they would be the third-largest oil consumer in the world and the fourth-largest gas consumer. These were the findings from Break Free From Plastic’s Winter is Coming report published late in 2022 in the midst of the energy crisis. 

This extremely high fossil fuel-consuming industry remained and still remains a complete oversight in the EU public energy and climate debates. This is despite clear and feasible pathways to reduce consumption of one of its main products: plastic. The EU cannot buy its way out of the multiple current crises by simply replacing Russian fossil fuels with imports from other regions. Every barrel of oil or cubic metre of fossil gas that goes towards plastics is a major roadblock towards the goals of tackling the climate and plastics crises and breaking free from the fossil dependency that foments instability and fuels wars.

Join us in this three episode podcast series as we explore the stories behind the data of the Winter is Coming report. We will be joined by activists, researchers and campaigners from Europe, Africa and the US. Each bringing new insight and perspective to help us understand why this high fossil fuel-consuming industry remains a complete oversight in the EU public energy and climate debates and what can be done to ease the energy dependency of Europe on the US and countries in Africa.

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