The writer is professor of political economy at the University of Cambridge
With autumn having barely arrived, fears of a European gas crisis are palpable. Global gas prices are higher than they have been during any non-winter month since they were crashing down from their peak in June 2008. European countries have been hardest hit.
Natural gas import prices for the EU are up 440 per cent on a year ago. With gas still central to electricity generation in most European countries, the benchmark EU electricity contract hit a record this month. In the UK, several small British energy companies, which had banked upon the relatively low prices brought by the American shale gas boom as a permanent turn, have gone under.
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