Europe must tackle its energy crisis now or face a very painful winter

“THE time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining,” US president John F. Kennedy once said. It is an adage that Europe must now wrestle with.

With spring blossoming even as war continues to darken the continent, it is hard to spend too much time thinking about next winter. Yet the geopolitical uncertainty created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine means volatile energy prices are guaranteed this year. UK energy bill projections for October have yo-yoed with oil and gas prices in recent weeks, from a high of £3000 a year on average to a still-very-high low of …