Anyone who had hoped to put the winter coat away in March may have already grabbed it again in snowy April. Put on that wool sweater again. Because in a new energy saving campaign, the government advises not to set the thermostat higher than 19 degrees. At home and at the office.
The government itself is going to set a good example, in a few hundred government offices the heating will be reduced by two degrees. In addition, the government will reserve a subsidy of 4 billion euros in the coming years for the insulation of 2.5 million homes. Door closers, draft strips and letterbox brushes have to be installed by the people themselves. Citizens are also asked to shower for a maximum of five minutes (“Tip! Put on a song of five minutes or less”), companies to turn off the lights more often.
“Good for your wallet, the climate and it helps us to become less dependent on gas from Russia,” said Minister Rob Jetten (Climate and Energy, D66), who launched the campaign on Saturday with Minister Hugo de Jonge (Public Housing, CDA). in Delft, in one of the government buildings with the highest gas consumption.
Three arguments
Jetten mentioned three solid arguments, but certainly not new ones. The gas price started rising sharply a year ago due to the rapid economic growth after the global corona lockdown, in combination with a limited gas supply. Climate change has also been going on for a while (nevertheless, the Netherlands again failed to meet the climate targets last year). And the dependence on Russian gas was also called ‘undesirable’ in 2014 (annexation of Crimea, MH17).
It seems that the Netherlands is seriously considering the scenario that Russian President Putin turns off the gas tap. The Netherlands gets about 15 percent of its gas from Russia (households are responsible for about a quarter of the total gas consumption). On Thursday, Putin threatened that Russia will stop supplying EU countries if payment is not made through ruble accounts.
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Germany, which depends on Russia for 55 percent of its gas (and 13 percent on the Netherlands), announced this week that it would activate its gas emergency plan. This concerns first and foremost monitoring of stocks, discussions with large customers and an appeal to consumers to save gas.
The Netherlands is not yet ready to implement its gas emergency plan from 2019, according to Minister Jetten. But it sure looks a lot like it. A call such as Jetten made to households and companies on Saturday is being called into question the gas emergency plan from 2019 described as the lightest and first measure to consider during a ‘gas crisis/emergency’.
Escalation ladder
The next measure on the crisis ladder is a request to neighboring countries to purchase less gas from the Netherlands. In January, the cabinet made similar requests to Germany, Belgium and France, in the hope of phasing out gas production in Groningen.
In addition, in February, the central government already made inquiries with dozens of large industrial gas consumers in order to gain an idea of the consequences of a possible shutdown (measure seven on the escalation ladder). The social and economic consequences appear to be ‘very serious’. Think of security risks and disruption of facilities, bankruptcies and unemployment.
But we are not there yet. First must, according to the slogan ‘Turn the switch too’, turn the thermostat down. The advice of 19 degrees is new. But not the call to save energy. In fact, factories and offices have been obliged to save energy since 1993, enforcement, however, has so far fallen short†
In a wry way, Climate Minister Jetten is now following the tide. “The war in Ukraine has been a step in the back to tackle this in a big way,” said Jetten. “I think that the people who were a bit more skeptical about saving energy now see the need for it. The self-evidence of always available cheap energy is gone.” Like the price, Putin is an incentive.
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At the same time, the campaign is a setback for the average office worker, who according to research prefers and performs best from 22 degrees. Women are on average three degrees above that. Does Jetten have any tips for the female civil servant? “If you’re cold, you may have sat too long in a meeting. Shorter meetings! And more standing meetings, that also helps.”