It wasn't just that, but there definitely was a collective shift toward energy saving, also among those who could've afforded the high energy prices. (at least here in NL)
I agree we shouldn't celebrate the decision of the poor to be energy-frugal, they had no choice in most cases. But those wo had a choice, still chose to conserve energy, often structurally. We should celebrate that for the environmental win it is.
This is interesting. Can you point to the data on this? Do you guys run some kind of tracker study?
My observations:
* I tried to find a contractor for some work on my house. Very few were available, none were available short-term. Most told me this is due to extreme demand for isolation measures.
* Lead times on heat pumps rose to half a year, presumably also due to demand.
* People dressed warmer.
* The most common thermostat temperature for people around me temperature dropped from 20c to 19c.
* "How to isolate" was a very common topic in most Dutch media, far more than in previous winters.
For the working class however, the people really affected by the green policies, it was a matter of choosing between heat and groceries.
For the environment it doesn't matter one bit as China is using more energy than the whole western world combined. It's telling that only the people that can still easily pay the bills see this as something to be celebrated.
And we won the battle.
The only reason I would even suggest that higher energy prices are good for ecology would be that businesses started genuinely doing things to cut consumption, like turning off lit advertising and office lights.
That people are essentially priced out of living healthy is nothing to be celebrated of course, but there is a small silver lining and it should be discussed.
that people cant afford to live is a pretty massive failing of the UK and its policies. That’s been talked to death though.
The financial assistance offered to Swedes for the power consumption is contentious as most people didn’t expect anything to be paid back and it was taken from the energy companies profits too.
It’s not even remotely the same, even though the Murdoch media would like to make you think so.
I live in Sweden with family in the UK, both countries have suffered. It's not the "Murdoch media".
If your food inflation was 10% year 1 and 18% year 2 then your total inflation over two years is 35.7%.
If your food inflation on year 1 is 5% and year 2 is 20% then your total inflation over two years is 26%
You might look at the year two value and claim that inflation is higher, but food prices in the UK relative to income are definitely higher due to inflation (which is seemingly being underreported) over the last 5 years.
To be fair, the lines look quite comparable, but when I compare the monthly shop I do to what my friends and family do, and I factor in salary- it doesn’t nearly paint the picture that Sweden and the UK are comparable.
“Cost of living crisis” is decidedly not a thing in Sweden, not to the same scale, even if there are a contingent of people who struggle a little. Choosing between heating and eating is uniquely a British position in this regard. Similar to gun crime in the US, it seems like the Brit’s are pointing to all other countries as if they have the same issues and of course they do not.
Sane countries roll out a mini-UBI to account for this.
Canada has a system of quarterly payments for every tax payer to make carbon taxes revenue-neutral (in theory). The belly-aching whining is truly extraordinary.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/child-famil...
Now, if we could convince the government that cutting labour taxes would increase supply of labour during a “labour shortage”, we might be getting somewhere.
> "When both fiscal and economic impacts of the federal fuel charge are considered, we estimate that most households will see a net loss,” PBO Yves Giroux said in a statement following release of the report. “Based on our analysis, most households will pay more in fuel charges and GST—as well as receiving slightly lower incomes—than they will receive in Climate Action Incentive payments.”
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/guilbeault-defends-carbon-pr...
> In provinces where the fee is levied, 90% of the revenues are returned to tax-payers.[4]
But if you want to see who’s truly a net winner or loser, if the rich lose more than the poor lose, the poor are still be better off if they’re net recipients of government services.
Lots of people that just sit on the couch under a blanket to stay warm. Apparently, hypothermia with elderly people has been a thing. That also increases the likelihood of strokes and other issues. Especially people with poor circulation. Other issues include respiratory issues due to cold and increased humidity in the apartments.
https://news.sky.com/story/cost-of-living-utterly-shameful-t...
So yes, there were people for whom the choice was "well I have £5 for today, either it's going in the meter so I can put heating on for a few hours and stay warm, or I need to use it to buy food to feed my family". This isn't some theoretical edge case scenario - this was a dilemma that many British families were faced with this winter.
There's an important point: how much of this was non-optional vs. luxury? I keep my home at 22, but if I had to, I could probably set it to 19 and tell everyone to wear a sweater in the winter. So not everyone, but definitely some slice of the population probably went from 19 to 16 or lower.
In Canada this can be a serious issue. My gas bill literally doubled for the same volume compared to last winter. This can be a sudden $100-200 extra monthly expense. Luckily it's illegal to ever cut anyone off from gas in the winter... but that doesn't fix the financial catastrophe.
19 is like, the temperature we set during off-peak hours, otherwise it's more like 18 (and we let it coast down during the evening).
Admittedly, it's quite cold when not moving around, so I spent most of the winter with at least 3 sweaters, a hot water bottle, and a blanket (and 2 layers of pants, usually).
When moving around, 17-18 is quite comfortable though, a long sleeved shirt or light sweater is usually enough.
He's Canadian. Over there electricity costs 0.044 € / kWh
https://www.hydroquebec.com/residential/customer-space/rates...
Also my hydro is closer to 9 cents.