Hopes Rise for Energy Savings As East Europe Tackles Waste

Russia’s price shock — which included a brief interruption of gas to Ukraine — sent shudders of concern across Europe about access to Russian gas, much of which arrives in a pipeline through Ukraine. But the price jolt is also having an unexpected benefit: It’s starting to force fundamental change on some of the most energy-wasteful economies in the world, those of former Soviet republics.

If all former Communist-bloc nations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia could reach West European levels of energy use per GDP unit, world energy consumption could fall 7.2%, says the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Wall Street Journal