The European Union refers to these households as "energy poor". Europeans are at twice the risk of falling into "energy poverty," with Bulgaria having the highest proportion of people living in "energy poverty" in Europe at 31%, followed by Lithuania at 28%, relatively warm Cyprus at 21% and Portugal at 19%.

In an interview with DPA on the 17th, the European Commission's employment and social rights official warned that more families will fall into "energy poverty" this winter, with millions of people in Europe unable to afford the rising cost of heating their homes.

Observers have warned of possible political unrest if the government does not take action to help the families, similar to the "yellow vest" movement in France a few years ago.

Eu seeks joint action on energy

Tackling rising energy prices was one of the top issues at the European Union summit in Brussels on October 21-22. Ahead of the summit, Spain called on the EU to take "urgent coordinated action" such as "joint gas purchases" to create strategic reserves or electricity market reforms.

However, the European Commission decided to postpone discussion of the Spanish proposal, arguing that member states had "sufficient tools" to deal with energy shortages - such as subsidies for poor households.

The energy crisis has divided the EU once again: Spain is leading France, Greece, the Czech Republic, Romania and others in opposing Brussels' stance, which is backed by Germany.

More than 20 European Union countries have enacted a variety of measures to combat rising energy prices, including price caps, energy tax cuts and subsidies for poor families.

Germany cut taxes on renewable energy by a third, and France announced a one-time €100 heating supplement for nearly six million low-income households. Spain has started cutting household energy taxes and levies on some energy suppliers. The Italian government has pledged €3 billion to subsidize up to 5.5 million of the most vulnerable people.

European countries are responding to rising energy prices in different ways, but joint EU action is made difficult by member states' differing energy sources and strategic interests.

Some experts argue that the EU should legislate to prohibit suppliers from cutting off energy sources to homes in the short term, "Why don't we have an EU-wide ban on power cuts yet?"

China's "lightning" intervention in coal prices is concerned

The request issued by the National Development and Reform Commission on the 19th to "use all necessary means to intervene in coal prices" quickly attracted the attention of domestic and foreign media. Beijing has tightened its grip on the domestic power market, promising to intervene in the coal market,

investigate pricing mechanisms and crack down on speculative fuel trading. Oxford Economics expects domestic supply shortages to ease in the coming months, with "the Chinese government emphasising the need to secure energy supplies to keep the economy running".

"Stunning coal rally stops in China with government warning", Bloomberg reported on the 20th that the Chinese government began a "policy blitz" aimed at curbing prices and easing the country's power crisis,

and Chinese coal futures ended their stunning rally since early September with a plunge on the 20th. As winter approaches, Chinese officials have been looking for ways to combat rising energy prices, ordering mines to expand coal production and telling top state energy companies to ensure adequate fuel supplies at all costs.

There are also moves to limit the cost of coal supplies. AFP also cited data from the National Development and Reform Commission as saying that China's coal stocks stood at 88 million tonnes, "enough to last 16 days".

Some insiders said that the rise in China's energy prices on the one hand is affected by global influence, and on the other hand, it is related to the implementation of "coal restrictions" in some domestic provinces.

The impact of global climate action on energy prices is undeniable. The US technology blog Gizmodo published an article by an environmentalist scholar with the headline "Damn it, Coal is back."

U.S. coal production is forecast to grow 22 percent in 2021, the first increase since 2014, "and the U.S. is not alone in increasing coal use to avoid paying a premium for natural gas." Coal is "one of the dirtiest energy sources" on Earth, and "if we continue to burn it, so will the planet."

At the same time, renewable energy sources have not proven sufficient to fill the world's energy gap, "We are in the stage of an energy transition, and the only real option is to be patient and reduce emissions while using transition fuels;

Or we can choose to abruptly abandon growth, which would reduce harmful emissions but accept economic collapse and poor people freezing to death."Explore the 300 years of American news history and discover the evolution of fake news

From the birth of news in the United States in the 17th century until 2021, it focuses on the origin, development and influence of fake news in the United States. According to the author's research, fake news comes into being with the birth of American journalism and continues to develop until now.