The European Union is asking its citizens to pull together and adopt energy-saving measures to reduce its reliance on Russian energy imports and help Ukraine.
Among the steps EU residents are being encouraged to take are working from home, using public transportation and turning off heaters.
According to an outline published by the European Commission and the International Energy Agency (IEA) Thursday, if they all follow the recommended energy-saving steps, Europeans can together "save enough oil to fill 120 super tankers and enough natural gas to heat almost 20 million homes."
Called "Playing my Part," the outline seeks to disrupt Russia's monopoly on European energy supplies, while simultaneously combating climate change.
"The Russian war in Ukraine is a human tragedy and a humanitarian disaster, and we're all looking at what can we do ourselves — what can we do professionally and what can we do personally," European Commission Director-General for Energy Ditte Juul Jørgensen said at a virtual summit on Thursday.
"The one thing that everyone can do — each of us can do, individually at home and at work — is to save energy," Jørgensen added.
Cutting down on energy consumption will allow EU citizens to save on energy bills, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and help Ukraine, the plan's authors say.
Specific recommendations include reducing speed on highways, walking or biking for short trips, taking trains instead of planes, turning down heaters and using less air conditioning, and adjusting boilers to more efficient settings.
According to the plan, turning down the thermostat by 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) would save approximately 7% of the energy used for heating, while the amount of electricity used for air conditioning could be reduced by 10% by setting the thermostat 1 degree C warmer.
"We are, in my view, in the first global energy crisis," IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said during the summit. "It looks like that this crisis may be with us for some time to come."
Birol emphasized that even if the EU's liquefied natural gas import capacity was at 100% — "a big, big, big challenge," he said — a significant amount of additional gas supplies would be needed to get through the coming winter.
Working remotely for three days a week could save EU families 35 euros ($38) on monthly vehicle fuel bills, even when increased energy use at home is factored in, the outline said.
The typical one-way car commute in the EU is roughly 15 kilometers, or 9 miles.
The plan also estimates that driving 10 kilometers per hour (6 miles per hour) slower could save motorists about 60 euros ($65) each year.
Governments will either ration consumer energy supplies, Birol said, or "we do it ourselves."
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