The environmental organizations Declic, Bankwatch, Greenpeace and 2Celsius are organizing a protest in front of the Ministry of Energy on Thursday, asking the government to reduce the bills for citizens through green investments.
“We ask the Government to increase the target set for 2030, from renewable green energy, from 30.7% to 40%, as requested by the European Commission,” reads a document submitted to Energynomics.
The NGOs will also have a meeting with ministry officials. At the meeting, Declic will submit more than 45,000 signatures from citizens who have completed the petition “Reduce energy bills, through green investments”. The activists will also lend a helping hand to the rulers: they will submit to the Ministry of Energy the result of an analysis carried out by 3 researchers, Dr. Andreea Vornicu, Dr. Andrei David Korberg and Dr. Sorin Cebotari, from the InfoClima network, which demonstrates how green energy would lower the price of bills and reduce dependence on imported gas.
“Energy bills have increased at least 3 times in the last year. In the middle of winter, almost half of Romania’s citizens wonder how they will warm up in the coming months. The solution of the authorities, to cap the prices of electricity and gas, for the next 6 months, does not help us in the long run.
”Citizens will have the first winter with huge bills. And studies show that if Romania continues to invest in fossil fuels, consumers will pay 50% more in the next 10 years than at present. The same studies show that investments in green energy would reduce prices, and the increase would not be more than 8 percent,” it is shown in the document of the environmental organizations.
“Instead of supporting investments that produce cheap energy, politicians are encouraging the expansion of gas networks in favor of the ‘wise guys’ from energy segment. As long as they increase their fortunes by millions of euros, 45.3% of Romanians carry the burden of heating bills. Romania’s only chance to reduce costs on medium- and long-term bills is a plan to support investments in green renewable energy. At the moment, there are no clear strategies and objectives to support these investments,” the activists also claim.
