AFP

Underneath the lush countryside in eastern France lie the pipelines expected to rescue Europe before a winter without Russian gas.

Europe has scrambled to find alternative energy sources since major fossil fuel producer Russia waged war on Ukraine in late February.

Gas arrives in the mountainous Vosges region from Norway, Qatar and even the United States destined for Europe, especially export powerhouse Germany.

Here lies a symbol of European solidarity in the face of crisis.

It is home to a significant interconnection between a pipeline that brings gas, mainly from Norway via Dunkirk in the north, and another in the direction of Switzerland, fortifying Europe against a bitter energy crisis.

For decades, the French network was designed only to receive gas from eastern Europe via Belgium and Germany, either to be used in the country or redirected to Spain and Switzerland.

But since the war, the gas routes and the pipes’ direction have reversed.

Now France receives gas from Spain, and this goes to Belgium and Germany, said Guillaume Tuffigo of the French network operator GRTgaz.

The significance of the Morelmaison compressor station near Vittel in Vosges, better known for its mineral water than pipes, is not immediately visible where only four people work at the remotely controlled site.

– European ‘solidarity’ –

Before the war, Russian gas supplies accounted for more than 40 percent of all imported gas into the European Union.

That has now dropped to less than 10 percent.

With Europe pushing to diversify energy supplies, the continent gets more natural gas from Norway as well as liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar and the United States, which arrive by ships at four French LNG terminals.

Once viewed as the “cul-de-sac” for Russian gas, France has now become one of the entryways for gas to the rest of Europe.

The current situation was “still unbelievable two years ago”, GRTgaz’s managing director Thierry Trouve told AFP.

“We didn’t have too many reasons to think this east-west flow could be called into question,” Trouve added.

In the gas industry, they would even remark that “Russian gas continued to flow during the Cold War”, he said, seeing no reason why this would end.

Until Russia invaded Ukraine.

Then GRTgaz modified its pipeline networks months ago to be able to send gas to Germany, whose supply mainly came from Russia.

The gas that flows via Morelmaison allows France “to show solidarity in a very concrete way and to compensate for the drop in supply from Russia”, said Tuffigo, head of GRTgaz’s marketing division.

– Energy cooperation –

Delivery to Germany via France began in October after the two neighbours agreed an energy cooperation deal a month earlier.

The connection has a maximum capacity of 100 GWh/day, which would be the equivalent output of four nuclear reactors, or 10 percent of the total LNG that France imports each day.

France’s delivery of gas to Switzerland has risen seven-fold in 2022 compared to the previous year. And Germany has delivered 70 percent less gas this year compared to the same period in 2021.

There are 26 gas compressor stations like Morelmaison across France with 32,527 kilometres (around 20,000 miles) of pipes managed by GRTgaz.

Despite the positive developments, Trouve predicted a difficult future.

Europe’s current reserve is around 93 percent full without Russian gas but for how long can the continent hold on?

“While waiting for new capacity for liquefied gas production, it will still be a tricky five years.”

The limits of Elon Musk’s self-professed “free speech absolutism” were laid bare, critics said, by his decision to ban rapper Kanye West from Twitter over his latest anti-Semitic outburst.

Musk claims to be engaged in “a battle for the future of civilisation. 

“If free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead,” he tweeted last week.

In practice, this has meant gutting his team of moderators and reinstating controversial figures such as Donald Trump, who was banned for inciting violence with his false claims about election fraud. 

Nevertheless, Musk’s claim to be a free-speech absolutist — including a mooted “general amnesty” for suspended accounts — was always going to struggle to survive the clash with reality, and particularly the clash with West (officially known as Ye), who has mounted an increasingly vociferous campaign of anti-Semitic outbursts in recent weeks.

The final straw for Musk was West’s tweet showing a Nazi swastika interlaced with a Star of David. 

It followed an interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, in which he declared his “love” of the Nazis and admiration for Adolf Hitler.

– ‘Half-baked’ philosophy –

“The problem is that Elon Musk has a half-baked free speech philosophy,” said Jacob Mchangama, author of “Free Speech: A History From Socrates to Social Media”.

“Sometimes he talks about total freedom of speech, sometimes about respecting the law. But of course laws are very different around the world where Twitter is present.

“Some of the things (West) has said would arguably be punishable in court in Europe, especially in France.” 

Musk’s takeover led to an immediate spike in hate content — up 25 to 30 percent, according to Bodyguard, which works to protect individuals from online attacks. 

The numbers have fallen since, but remain 10-15 percent above long-run levels, founder Charles Cohen told AFP. Musk’s vision of free speech was “not technically, economically or ethically viable”, he added.

And while West’s tweets might have been policed by the boss himself, Asma Mhalla, of Sciences Po university in Paris, argued: “The industrial-level moderation needed for the network is now completely lacking.”

Few believe total freedom of speech is possible for a private platform that relies on advertising.

– Absolutism ‘fantasy’ –

“So-called free-speech absolutism is just a fantasy,” said influential podcaster Sam Harris earlier this week on his “Making Sense” show. “Almost no one really holds that position even when they espouse it.”

Some level of content moderation was needed to stop platforms turning into “a digital sewer”, he said.

“Contrary to what most people think, it’s legal to shout ‘fire’ in a crowded theatre — but wouldn’t we want the owner of that theatre to remove someone who was shouting that over and over again?” Harris said.

Mchangama said he did not believe West’s comments actually amounted to inciting violence, not least because the rapper has a well-documented history of mental illness that appears to be fuelling his erratic behaviour. 

“He seems profoundly disturbed rather than trying to organise violence against Jews,” Mchangama said. 

He would also like to see more creative solutions. 

“The best way forward is to empower users to filter more of what they don’t like rather than have governments or big tech make these decisions at a centralised level,” he said.

“You can’t have free speech absolutism… but you should err on the side of free speech and there are ways that Musk could have done it.

“But he’s been chaotic and has not made a persuasive case for the sceptics.”

US job gains were unexpectedly robust in November despite efforts to cool the economy, while unemployment held steady and wages ticked up, the government reported Friday.

The figures provide little relief to officials who have been fighting to tamp down decades-high inflation amid concerns that elevated costs could become entrenched.

The world’s biggest economy added 263,000 jobs in November, Labor Department data showed, down from a revised 284,000 figure in October.

The unemployment rate remained low at 3.7 percent.

The US central bank has raised its benchmark interest rate multiple times this year to ease demand, with higher lending costs making it more pricey to borrow funds to buy cars and homes, or expand businesses. 

While such policy tightening may ordinarily lead to job losses, economists have noted that firms are reluctant to shed workers they may have struggled to find since the outbreak of Covid-19.

Average hourly earnings for private sector workers rose 18 cents to $32.82, and over the last 12 months, wages have grown 5.1 percent.

The report also said there were notable job gains in leisure and hospitality, health care, as well as in government.

But employment dipped in retail trade, and in transportation and warehousing.

– ‘Far too hot’ –

The labor market “remains far too hot” for the Federal Reserve, said ING economist James Knightley in an analysis.

This is because tightness in the jobs market has implication for wage pressures, which make up the largest cost in delivering services, he said.

Meanwhile, the jobless rate was steady as labor participation — which is still below pre-pandemic levels — fell once more, Knightley said.

Analysts believe the latest data supports further tightening of monetary policy by the US central bank.

“Overall, the data are signaling ongoing positive momentum in job growth and still-elevated wages,” said Rubeela Farooqi of High Frequency Economics in a note.

While the Fed has signaled this week it might be time to moderate its aggressive campaign to cool the economy, there remain questions over how much higher rates have to go to bring inflation under control, said Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

The central bank has raised borrowing rates six times this year in hopes of easing demand, including four steep rate hikes, while walking a fine line to avoid tipping the economy into a recession.

The trend of wage increases appears stable, but analysts have been “hoping to see a clear softening,” said Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics.

“Even if inflation drops faster than expected over the next few months,” he said, policymakers “will be worried about a rebound in the second half of 2023 and beyond if wage growth does not slow.” 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has driven countries across the world to boost energy efficiency, creating “huge potential” to tackle high prices, security and climate change, the IEA said on Friday.

Governments have scaled up fossil fuel subsidies to cushion the impact of rising energy costs on households in the wake of the Ukraine conflict, which has disrupted gas supplies and stoked prices.  

But a new report from the International Energy Agency found that it had also prompted policymakers and consumers to shrink their power use, causing record investment in energy efficiency measures, like building renovations, and infrastructure for public transport and electric cars.

IEA executive director Fatih Birol said after the oil shocks of the 1970s, governments pushed “substantial improvements” in energy efficiency, particularly in cars, appliances and buildings. 

“Amid today’s energy crisis, we are seeing signs that energy efficiency is once again being prioritised,” he said.

“Energy efficiency is essential for dealing with today’s crisis, with its huge potential to help tackle the challenges of energy affordability, energy security and climate change.”

According to the IEA research, governments, industry and households invested a record $560 billion this year in energy efficiency measures.

Preliminary IEA data for 2022 also suggests that the global economy used energy two percent more efficiently than it did in 2021, almost double the rate of the past five years. 

Annual improvements would need to rise to four percent to meet decarbonisation goals by mid-century, the IEA said. 

But it said if current trends continue to improve, 2022 “could mark a vital turning point” for efficiency, adding that developments this year have “changed the dynamics of energy markets for decades to come”.

Recent government initiatives to boost efficiency in buildings, cars and industry have included legislation in Europe, Japan and the United States that add up to hundreds of billions of dollars in spending. 

– ‘Hyper-efficient and climate-friendly’ –

The IEA said that one in every eight cars sold globally is now electric. 

Building codes are also being updated across the world, it said, while there is growing energy efficiency awareness among consumers. 

In Southeast Asia, all governments were developing policies for efficient cooling, which the IEA said was “vital for a region with one of the fastest rates of growth in electricity demand”.

Meanwhile, global sales of heat pumps are expected to hit record levels in 2022, driven by surging demand in Europe, where almost three million are expected to be sold this year — up from 1.5 million in 2019. 

“Heat pumps are an indispensable part of any plan to cut emissions and natural gas use, and an urgent priority in the European Union today,” said Birol in a press statement this week.

If governments meet all their energy and climate targets, the IEA said “hyper-efficient and climate-friendly” heat pumps could meet nearly a fifth of global heating needs in buildings by 2030, up from a tenth in 2021.

Its first special report on the future of heat pumps, released Wednesday, said the technology, if powered by low-emissions electricity, was “central” to the global transition to sustainable heating. 

The report estimated that heat pumps have the potential to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions by at least 500 million tonnes in 2030 — equal to annual CO2 pollution from the cars in Europe today.