Zijn we klaar voor de koude winter?

Recent inflation, with prices suddenly more than ten percent higher than a year ago, has major consequences for purchasing power. This certainly applies to those on a small income, but even to some with a middle income. This inflation mainly relates to the price of energy (gas, electricity and oil), and to products such as food, where heating and transport are an important part of the costs. This makes a repair of purchasing power for these income groups urgently needed. In September 2022, all kinds of policy measures were designed, both by the EU and by the Dutch government, to ease the pain. This contribution discusses the how and why of these measures. An important aspect in this respect is that higher prices for fossil energy, while entailing a loss of purchasing power, can also accelerate the much needed transition from the use of fossil fuels to sustainable energy. That is why the measures to ease the purchasing power pain should hinder the transition to the use of exclusively sustainable energy as little as possible. For example, it is necessary to decouple the price of sustainably generated electricity from the gas price.