LAGOS, Nigeria. (Voice Of Naija) More than 200 civil society organisations, industry associations and environmental groups are urging European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to use her State of the European Union address to launch a concrete plan for ending Europe’s dependence on fossil fuels.
The campaign comes as Europe confronts another major energy shock, just four years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exposed the risks of the continent’s dependence on fossil fuel imports.
In a joint letter, more than 200 organisations called on von der Leyen to make the current crisis Europe’s last by commissioning an independent, science-based assessment of how the European Union can phase out fossil fuels while protecting households, businesses and industrial competitiveness.
The organisations argue that Europe is effectively “paying twice” for its continued dependence on fossil fuels.
The first cost is economic, with energy prices vulnerable to wars, geopolitical tensions and decisions made by oil and gas-producing countries outside the bloc.
The second is the growing human and economic cost of climate change, including heatwaves, droughts and wildfires that have affected large parts of Europe this summer.
The campaign groups say the latest energy shock demonstrates that the structural vulnerability exposed during the 2022 crisis has not disappeared.
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They argue that continued reliance on imported fossil fuels leaves European consumers exposed to another round of price increases whenever conflict disrupts global energy supplies.
The European Commission has itself placed energy independence and strategic autonomy among its priorities for the year ahead.
Its official State of the Union programme says the bloc is working to reduce strategic dependencies while strengthening Europe’s competitiveness and security.
Von der Leyen is scheduled to deliver the address at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on September 16.
Climate campaigners want that broader strategic goal translated into a specific fossil-fuel exit roadmap.
The joint letter, supported by more than 200 organisations and industry groups, calls for an assessment that would identify the financial burden created by fossil fuel dependence, determine the fastest and most competitive route away from those fuels, and examine how public funding could accelerate the transition fairly.
The signatories include environmental organisations as well as groups representing sectors involved in Europe’s energy transition.
Their argument is that reducing fossil fuel consumption should no longer be viewed solely as a climate policy but as an economic and security strategy.
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“Europe’s dependence on fossil fuels leaves the region vulnerable,” the campaign groups argue, pointing to the combination of high energy costs and geopolitical instability.
The political challenge for von der Leyen is that the European Union’s climate ambitions are increasingly being tested against concerns about the cost of living and industrial competitiveness.
The Commission’s own description of this year’s State of the Union places considerable emphasis on building a more independent, secure and prosperous Europe.
Its agenda includes boosting competitiveness, reducing strategic dependencies, strengthening defence and expanding international partnerships.
Climate policy is therefore expected to be discussed alongside economic and security priorities rather than in isolation.
That balance could make the energy section of Wednesday’s speech particularly significant.
European industries have faced pressure from high energy costs, while governments across the bloc have struggled to reconcile emissions-reduction targets with demands for affordable electricity and protection for energy-intensive businesses.
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Campaigners believe the answer is to accelerate investment in renewable energy, energy efficiency, electricity networks and other technologies that can reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels.
The organisations behind the letter argue that Europe already has many of the tools needed for such a transition. What is missing, they say, is a sufficiently clear and coordinated political plan.
The debate also comes after an exceptionally difficult summer for parts of Europe. Climate organisations have pointed to repeated heatwaves, drought and wildfires as evidence of the increasing costs of a warming climate.
Climate Reality Europe, one of the groups supporting the campaign, said Europe is facing both rising energy costs and worsening climate impacts as a consequence of its fossil fuel dependence.
The campaigners’ appeal therefore goes beyond the immediate energy crisis.
They want the EU to treat fossil fuel dependence as a strategic vulnerability that must be eliminated rather than a problem that can be managed each time another geopolitical crisis sends energy prices higher.
Von der Leyen’s previous State of the Union address in 2022 came during the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The European Commission’s own archive identifies overcoming the energy crisis and climate policy among the major themes of that speech.
Four years later, Europe is facing another test of the same underlying vulnerability.
The difference this time is that campaigners are demanding that the European Union use the latest crisis as a turning point.
Rather than simply securing alternative supplies whenever disruption occurs, they want Europe to reduce the amount of fossil fuel it needs in the first place.
Whether von der Leyen adopts that language in Wednesday’s address remains to be seen.
The Commission has already made reducing strategic dependencies and strengthening Europe’s independence central themes for 2026, but the organisations behind the campaign are pressing for a much more explicit commitment to fossil fuel phase-out.
The State of the Union speech will therefore provide an important indication of how the EU intends to reconcile climate policy with energy security and economic competitiveness.
For campaigners, the objective is straightforward: Europe should not wait for a third energy shock before acting on the lessons of the first two.
The question now is whether von der Leyen will use Europe’s latest energy crisis to begin that transition — and make it, as more than 200 organisations are demanding, the continent’s last fossil fuel crisis.
