The Climate Emergency: Putting Consumers at the Heart of the European Green Deal Following Russia's War on Ukraine

On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a military invasion on Ukraine that created a humanitarian catastrophe by destroying lives, homes and infrastructure. The illegal invasion has had significant consequences: electricity prices have soared and wholesale gas prices have more than doubled, sparking a global energy crisis. Another consequence has been global food prices rising to the highest levels ever recorded. On the other hand, consumers have to be at the core of the EU’s energy policy. For this to happen, a wide range of initiatives have to be implemented to make consumers an active part of the clean energy transition and help them save money and energy. To this end, this work will first review the liberalization process, and then discuss how green liberalization can be advanced in light of the Green Deal. Following this, we will explore how consumers will engage in future energy markets and then we will move on to how the war affects consumers and Europe’s ability to reach carbon neutrality in the second half of the 21st century.