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Energiekrise: EU-Klimakommissar fordert radikaleren Kurs und erklärt den Weg
Energiekrisen durch Kriege im Iran und in der Ukraine: Laut EU-Klimakommissar Wopke Hoekstra führt nur heimische Energie heraus. „Das schulden wir unseren Bürgerinnen und Unternehmen“, sagte er Euronews.
LESEN SIE MEHR : http://de.euronews.com/2026/05/07/eu-klimakommissar-zu-energiekrisen-wir-mussen-radikaler-handeln
Abonnieren Sie! Euronews gibt es in 12 Sprachen.
Energiekrisen durch Kriege im Iran und in der Ukraine: Laut EU-Klimakommissar Wopke Hoekstra führt nur heimische Energie heraus. „Das schulden wir unseren Bürgerinnen und Unternehmen“, sagte er Euronews.
LESEN SIE MEHR : http://de.euronews.com/2026/05/07/eu-klimakommissar-zu-energiekrisen-wir-mussen-radikaler-handeln
Abonnieren Sie! Euronews gibt es in 12 Sprachen.
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NewsTranskript
00:07Hello and welcome to the Europe Conversation, I'm Stefan Grobe.
00:11My guest today was nominated as Political Talent of the Year
00:16by the Parliamentary Press in the Netherlands in 2013.
00:19Living up to that nomination, he spent a decade in the Dutch Senate and House,
00:24served as Finance and Foreign Minister before joining the European Commission.
00:28I'm very excited to welcome the European Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth, Wopke Hoekstra.
00:35Thank you, Commissioner, for coming on the show today.
00:38Thank you very much for having me.
00:39Let me start with a personal question.
00:42You are the father of four children.
00:45Now, to what extent does that inspire you in your fight for more climate protection?
00:50Well, in any case, it means I always have a lot to explain back home,
00:54because they ask about my work.
00:58Not only our generation is preoccupied by climate change,
01:01but certainly also the kids in school.
01:04And they have turned into quite fanatic recyclers back home.
01:09That is very good.
01:11Now, last year marked the 10th anniversary of the landmark Paris Climate Agreement.
01:16What is the agreement's legacy in the EU?
01:19I think it is absolutely huge.
01:22It is probably the most important thing we have done as humanity in setting out the course going forward.
01:30So, of course, there is a lot of pushback.
01:33Of course, there is more needed.
01:34Of course, the damage that we have in front of us is really dramatic.
01:39And at the same time, Paris is a beacon and has really shaped the behavior of the last 10 years.
01:47And we'll continue to do so going forward.
01:50You mentioned that today's reality is that the climate policy, the EU Green Deal,
01:56is under pressure, under political pressure.
02:00How do you feel these headwinds and how do you cope with them?
02:04I mean, I think there are two things at the same time.
02:07Indeed, in some cases, there is a bit of pushback.
02:11At the same time, what people do realize is that the combination of climate,
02:17of competitiveness and of independence truly is hugely important.
02:21And we experience that, of course, today with the horrible energy crisis.
02:26We already had a very good climate objective to get rid of fossil fuels
02:30and move into renewables and nuclear and electrification.
02:33There was also already a very good reason to do that, just for financial reasons,
02:38because energy in Europe simply is too expensive.
02:41But we now learn the hard way that we are dramatically dependent on the stuff that we have to import.
02:48We are at the mercy of international affairs.
02:51And we cannot allow that.
02:53We cannot expose our citizens and our companies to this type of vulnerability.
02:58So that we need to change.
03:00You were in Colombia recently for the first ever global talks to accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels.
03:09What did this conference achieve?
03:11So what it brought together was a group of like-minded countries that want to double down on accelerating.
03:20To be quite honest, the process of multilateralism and the cops is imperfect at best.
03:29And particularly the last cop was also very, very difficult.
03:32So we need to change that system and at the same time be realistic,
03:37because if some people want to spoil it, that is possible,
03:40because it is a system that lives by unanimity.
03:43So bringing together a group of countries with more ambition, a coalition of the willing, if you will,
03:50I think is a fruitful way forward.
03:53I think it is testimony to the success that the organizers, Colombia and the Netherlands,
03:58managed to pull that off this quickly.
04:00And it is now up to this group to see what we can do more together going forward.
04:05You were also the EU's chief negotiator at the EU climate conference in Dubai three years ago.
04:14I want you to tell us a little about the atmosphere in the rooms.
04:18Is it emotional?
04:20Are people committed to the same cause?
04:23Or are this just lawyers haggling over every comma in the text?
04:28It is a combination.
04:30Or a mix.
04:31Yeah, and there's certainly a lot of emotion.
04:34And I mean, whatever group of people, if you put them in a room and you lock them up for
04:38some 24 hours,
04:40I mean, just because they all become tired, emotions will be visible at some point.
04:47That's the moment when the deals are struck, right?
04:49To some degree, yes.
04:50And of course, there is also always, there is innuendo.
04:53So there is, there is a bit of theater.
04:57There is, I mean, people, people typically master the whole playbook of any negotiation.
05:02So you will see that in front of you.
05:04What the essence of Dubai, of course, was, was that we managed to basically kiss alive
05:09a supermajority that was in favor of more action.
05:15And in the end, this was, I think, an unexpected success for diplomacy,
05:21the tripling of renewable energy, the doubling of energy efficiency,
05:26the statement about transitioning away from fossil fuels.
05:29It was a landmark result.
05:32It was one of the best COPs, frankly speaking, since Paris.
05:35So today, Europe is facing another energy crisis fueled by the war in the Gulf,
05:41the war in Iran, while we're still dealing with the fallout from another energy crisis,
05:47of course, sparked by the war in Ukraine.
05:51Isn't that a great opportunity for an EU climate commissioner to tout renewable energies?
05:58Yes, I know.
05:59And the no is, and that is maybe where I'm a bit cautious.
06:02Look, I mean, if you're fueling up your car back home,
06:05or you're dealing with an higher energy bill,
06:08and then politicians come to you and say,
06:10well, isn't that fantastic?
06:11And isn't that a great opportunity?
06:13I think you maybe have a bit of a different emotion.
06:17What is true, and where you are absolutely right,
06:20is that the only way to get out of this nightmare,
06:24the only way to get rid of this dependency,
06:27is to ensure more homegrown energy.
06:30And that means more electrification,
06:32more renewables, more heat pumps,
06:35more interconnectors between our member states,
06:37more nuclear.
06:38That whole mix is needed.
06:40Including nuclear?
06:42Including nuclear.
06:43And if you look back at our history,
06:46and you think about the oil crisis of 1973,
06:51the crisis that we saw in 79 after the Iranian revolution,
06:55indeed, 2022.
06:56And now, again, every single time we see how vulnerable Europe is,
07:03how little energy we have ourselves.
07:05We are a resource-scarce continent.
07:08So we have a huge objective, again, for climate,
07:12for competitiveness, but also for independence,
07:14to make more of this stuff ourselves.
07:16That is the way going forward.
07:19I remember that, by the way, in 73,
07:21when my father was not allowed to drive on the highways on Sundays.
07:27Exactly.
07:28To save energies.
07:29Now, some countries, like France,
07:32are doubling down on the transition
07:33to clean energy in response.
07:37Will this become an EU-wide movement?
07:43Absolutely.
07:44And France is doing a very good job there.
07:46It's exactly linked to your previous question.
07:49Let's make sure we take the opportunity out of this nightmare
07:54and we use this to accelerate what we're already planning to do.
07:59And again, if you think about these previous events,
08:02so 73, 79, and 2022,
08:05every single time our response has been positive
08:09in the sense that we have realized
08:11that we had to become more independent.
08:13At the same time, I think the lesson is also
08:16that after every previous crisis,
08:19we actually should have been more radical.
08:22We should have been more forward-leaning.
08:25And that is what we need to do now.
08:27The world is full of geopolitical turmoil.
08:31It could well be that this is not the last episode.
08:35And we owe it to our citizens and our companies
08:39that we're not going to confront them
08:42with higher prices during the next crisis.
08:45Whether that is in three years or five years or ten years,
08:47no one knows.
08:48We have to solve this.
08:49On the other hand,
08:51some of the world's greenest countries
08:53that are endowed with fossil fuel resources,
08:56such as the Netherlands and Denmark,
08:58are eyeing more drilling in the short term.
09:03What do you make of this?
09:05I personally think that is...
09:07Do you understand this or...?
09:08No, I mean, if you look at where we are today,
09:13my read is it is truly better to double down.
09:18By the way, there are differences between those two countries.
09:21Denmark is further advanced,
09:24also doesn't face the net congestion,
09:27as far as I understand it,
09:29that the Netherlands is facing.
09:30So, of course, there are always specificities
09:33that you need to deal with in a national context.
09:37But overall, there simply is no substitute
09:41than to fast forward.
09:43And again, that is that whole mix of electrification,
09:46of nuclear, of solar,
09:48that we so desperately need.
09:50And by the way, the Danes,
09:51but also the Swedes and the Finns
09:53have done an amazing job in the last couple of years
09:55in doing exactly that.
09:57I think the core question here is,
10:00can Europe secure its own energy?
10:03Is that really possible?
10:05How long does it take?
10:06And what is needed to do this?
10:09We absolutely can.
10:11Of course, we cannot do it in the next few years, right?
10:14Gas will continue to be a transition fuel
10:17for years to come.
10:19Energy demand, also because of what we see
10:22in terms of development of AI,
10:24will go up rather than down,
10:26even with all the energy efficiency measures
10:28that we'll probably have up our sleeves.
10:32But the more independent we become,
10:35the more homegrown we become,
10:37the less vulnerable we become.
10:38So even if you have a bit of a,
10:41let's say, long tail of fossil fuels,
10:45then that in any case is way better
10:47than the current situation,
10:48where we're just heavily dependent
10:51on the oil and the gas that we get from outside.
10:55We truly, and as I said it before,
10:57we are at the mercy of others.
10:59And of course it was smart
11:01to get rid of Russian gas.
11:03But we replaced that by,
11:05well, maybe a bit more renewables,
11:07but also by dependency on American LNG,
11:11Qatari LNG, and LNG from others.
11:14Is that a completely safe bet?
11:16Well, I guess we have second thoughts about that, right?
11:19Just look at what is happening across the globe.
11:23And even those who might not get their LNG
11:28going through the Strait of Hormuz
11:30are still very vulnerable
11:32because these are global markets.
11:34Now, the overall political goal in this town
11:38has become improving European competitiveness.
11:43To what extent is this putting you
11:49and your portfolio under pressure?
11:51I mean, we just need to open the newspaper.
11:52We rarely read about climate issues
11:55because there's so much else going on.
11:57But how do you deal with this?
11:59Do you feel this?
12:01And how do you try to argue against it?
12:04It's really things that go hand in hand
12:06because if you think about competitiveness
12:09and you think about what are the veins
12:13of our industry, it's energy.
12:16And the reality is that our companies,
12:19and particularly, of course, heavy industry
12:21that are very dependent on energy
12:23are being confronted with very high energy prices
12:26compared to the Americans, but also others.
12:30It's a competitive disadvantage.
12:32And that is because we have to import the stuff.
12:35We're paying more.
12:37And in many cases, European countries
12:40are also taxing more than maybe other nations.
12:44So that is a complicated mix.
12:46And that is exactly the reason
12:48why we need to fast forward this transition.
12:51Where I'm absolutely with those companies
12:54is that that alone, fixing the energy problem alone,
12:58is not going to be enough.
12:59We will need to do much more to embark
13:02on truly a single market for capital,
13:05for people, and so on.
13:07We need to radically simplify
13:09because, frankly speaking,
13:10we have made life too difficult for our companies.
13:13And what about the infrastructure?
13:16Because when we talk about transition, etc.,
13:20infrastructure comes to mind,
13:22and I'm thinking of a charging station for cars.
13:25This is what everybody,
13:26every consumer in the EU feels.
13:29Now, it's still the case
13:32that I think three-quarters
13:33of all charging stations in the EU
13:35are based in the Netherlands, Germany, and France.
13:38Why does it take so long?
13:40Why are the others just deaf?
13:43Or what's going on?
13:45You're absolutely right.
13:47We have more homework to do,
13:49and that shows that there is also
13:52clearly an opportunity,
13:54but also an obligation
13:55for member states to do more.
13:58Here's the good news,
13:59and indeed, the countries you were mentioning,
14:01I would add the Scandinavians to that list
14:03that have the most electrified car park of all.
14:06Well, certainly Norway.
14:08Yeah, which is, let's say,
14:10not yet a member of the European Union.
14:12Let's not tease them too much.
14:13I'm a huge fan of the country,
14:15but they're also indeed,
14:18they have a truly electrified car park.
14:22What is the good news?
14:23If you look at the type of cars
14:25that now already are being put onto the market
14:27in terms of radius,
14:29in terms of quality of the engine,
14:33in terms of how quickly they can load,
14:37we are in a completely different dimension
14:39than we were some four or five years ago.
14:42And if I listen to experts,
14:44they're telling me,
14:45look, the best car that is,
14:47or the car with the longest radius
14:49that is currently being put on the market
14:51is maybe some 700, 800 kilometers,
14:54at least in testing,
14:56maybe it's a bit less in reality.
14:58The number will only go up.
15:00Now, what they are telling me,
15:02and again, they are the experts,
15:04they're telling me,
15:04look, a thousand kilometers,
15:06somewhere in the next five to 10 years,
15:08will clearly come in sight.
15:11If that is the case,
15:13that gives you a completely different picture
15:16in terms of what your loading infrastructure
15:19would need to look like.
15:20Because of course,
15:21you would need more quantity,
15:23but you would not need it
15:25maybe at every corner of the street.
15:28So I think we are up for a lot of positive surprises
15:32in this specific domain.
15:35Okay, who says infrastructure also says grids.
15:39Where are we here right now?
15:41There's also some sort of, you know, problem.
15:45Are the grids strong enough?
15:47Yeah, I mean, we have an awesome amount of work out of us.
15:51Let's just be very honest.
15:53It's, we're not nearly there.
15:55We need to invest billions and billions in the grids.
15:59And in my view, that will ask for public money.
16:02But I think we need to be unorthodox.
16:04We also need to allow semi-public or private money.
16:07Think about pension funds and other large investors.
16:12Because the amount of money we'll need is simply so large.
16:15Next to that, we need way more intelligence.
16:19Maybe AI or other tools,
16:21because we're not making use of the electricity
16:24in the smartest possible way.
16:25And that will give you percentage points extra.
16:28All these things are known for a long time, right?
16:31But still, we're not making the progress that we want.
16:36Well, we are.
16:37I think if you look at what we did in the last year,
16:40it need also seizing the opportunity
16:43with the package that we came out with two weeks ago,
16:47with the grids package that Jurgensen launched
16:51in, I believe, December of last year.
16:54With actually each of these measures, we're taking steps.
16:57I think where you are right and where we need to be self-critical,
17:03we're not yet meeting the bar, and much more is needed, right?
17:07So let's be as forward-leaning as we can,
17:10because every euro invested in this transition is well spent.
17:16Again, because we are so vulnerable.
17:19As every child knows, climate change ignores borders.
17:25Now, you mentioned Norway.
17:27What are the EU's international partners
17:31in the fight against climate change?
17:33It's a range of groups.
17:35And by the way, let me echo what you're saying.
17:36It's one of the complicated things of climate change,
17:40is that indeed it doesn't discriminate.
17:42If you were able to just fix it in your own backyard
17:45and then you would be off the hook,
17:48that would make things way easier, right?
17:51But that's simply not the case.
17:53The planet doesn't care where we pump stuff into the air.
17:57If it happens, we all are living in a place that is heated up
18:01with one specific problem for Europe.
18:05Europe is heating up more quickly than the other.
18:07So we have a disproportionate incentive to make sure
18:11that we don't do just our homework ourselves.
18:13We do it also with others.
18:15That is where the partners come in.
18:17And there are various groups.
18:20And we try to build bridges all over the world.
18:22But clearly, first, there is the group of, let's say,
18:25Norway, Canada, Australia, the UK,
18:29with whom we work very closely together,
18:30given that they are so like-minded.
18:33Secondly, we also work together very closely
18:35with our friends from Latin America,
18:38hence the conference of last week.
18:41And it is not a coincidence that there was a European
18:43and a Latin American country that were organizing it.
18:47But also more broadly with the global south,
18:50if you think about the small islands,
18:53our friends in Africa, our friends in Asia,
18:57the success of the conference in Dubai that you just mentioned,
19:02at the heart of that was that we managed to create
19:06this supermajority that crossed the north-south divide.
19:10And that is, I think, the name of the game going forward.
19:13You did not mention our friends in the US and in China.
19:16I guess it's a little more subdued.
19:20Well, I mean, and they're in different categories, right?
19:24So with the Americans, we worked exceptionally closely together,
19:28John Kerry in particular, in Dubai,
19:32in Baku with John Podesta, his successor.
19:37But the reality is that the Americans have checked out on this
19:40on this topic, and that is, I mean, it's very unfortunate.
19:44But I have to take the world as it is,
19:47not as I would like it to be.
19:49All right. Fascinating conversation.
19:51Wopke Hoogstra, EU Climate Commissioner.
19:53Thank you so much for your time.
19:54Thank you, sir. Thank you.
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