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Amid tensions with supplier Russia over the war in Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron has called for a 10% reduction in the country’s energy use in the coming weeks and months to avoid this winter Risk of rationing and production cuts.
Mr Macron warned on Monday that if voluntary efforts were not enough, mandatory energy savings may have to be considered in the coming months.
He said energy rationing plans were being prepared “just in case” and that “cutbacks will be used as a last resort”.
“The best energy is what we don’t consume,” the French leader told a news conference in which he urged French businesses and households to conserve energy, including by turning off heating and air conditioning.
Speaking after a video conference with German Chancellor Olaf Schultz on Monday, Macron announced a plan to increase gas supplies to Germany from France to make up for a drop in gas supplies from eastern Russia.
In exchange, Mr Macron said Germany would continue to supply France with electricity to make up for a shortage caused by ongoing maintenance on many French nuclear reactors.
On Friday, leaders spoke at an emergency meeting of EU energy ministers to discuss how the continent can coordinate to keep warm this winter if Russia cuts off gas supplies.
Mr Macron said France and Germany supported the idea of ​​requiring energy companies, which have made huge profits in the recent surge in gas and oil prices, to make some kind of “contribution” to public coffers and to impose price caps on Russian gas.
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