Because they are morons and shut down their nuclear plants and bet everything on Russian gas and renewables that aren't even designed to provide baseload.
They absolutely should have seen this coming.
They absolutely should have seen this coming.
This is bigger than Germany closing some nuclear plants, although that obviously isn't helping. Despite knowing that natural gas is a fossil fuel that we need to stop using the cost of using it hasn't been high enough to dissuade using it. This sudden increase in cost and the crisis it has and will cause really shows that economy is the only thing that matters, people will continue burning whatever they can get as long as it's cheap, since the external cost of global warming isn't properly included in the price. Neither was security risks, and we're all paying for that now.
[0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/873552/energy-mix-in-ita...
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1235432/hungary-distribu...
[2] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...
I'm glad that there are still people who understand this. In the Netherlands 90% of the homes[1] still run on natural gas and that's not something we can "simply" replace. It is possible and will eventually happen but it will take years if not decades.
And that's just homes in the Netherlands. Take a look at the global energy mix[2] how much the world still depends on gas.
[1] https://www-cbs-nl.translate.goog/nl-nl/nieuws/2021/07/92-pr...