Back in late March, the EU Council reached an agreement to extend voluntary 15% gas demand reduction targets because “The EU is not completely out of the energy crisis and Russia continues to use energy as a weapon.” The new regulation covers the year to 31 March 2024 and sets a 15% demand reduction target relative to the 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2021 average. The council revealed that overall EU consumption of natural gas had dropped by 19.3% between August 2022 and January 2023, and noted that reducing the bloc’s gas demand…
