Germany Pioneered A Gas Rationing Scheme

The continent is now stuck having to ration commodities, led by energy. At the end of March, Germany announced a phase iii gas supply emergency plan, with rationing in place if the supply situation deteriorates to the maximum extent. Austria followed suit in early April, tightening gas monitoring and rationing when necessary. Meanwhile, the threat of diesel shortages looms in Britain, and the industry believes it is only a matter of time before the country implements fuel rationing.

It is understood that the German gas supply emergency preplan is divided into three levels: early warning, warning and emergency, if reached alert level, the German government to intervene in the natural gas market distribution, the specific consumer groups will be the first to get gas supply security, and manufacturing and other industries will be forced to cut demand, this will cause the German economy "incalculable impact". Robert Habeck, Germany's economy minister, warned that the country was on an energy alert as inflation surged from 5.5 per cent in February to 7.6 per cent in March.

German industry has faced energy crises in the past, but this time the government is simply not prepared. Half of German homes use natural gas for heating, while industry accounts for about a third of the country's demand, Reuters noted. Russia is Germany's biggest gas supplier, accounting for 40 per cent of imports in the first quarter.

If the west continues to stand up to Russia, Germany will not be the only country to go back to rationing. The entire Continent will be forced to "tighten its belt" and all commodities, not just gas and diesel, could be rationed, BBC News noted.

"Even though Europe is heading into the warm season, it still needs to keep gas stocks full for next winter." Chi Kong Chyong, director of the Energy Policy Forum at Cambridge University, said: "If Russia were to run out of gas, all countries in Europe would be forced to activate emergency plans such as rationing."