Frankly, I think it's embarrassing that such a large part of Europe is still so dependent on natural gas. It's being portrayed as a problem now due to economics, but global warming and making yourself dependent on authoritarian regimes has been an issue for much longer than that. The switch should have happened much sooner, but I guess the money was always more important and Russian gas was cheap enough to forget about the external costs.
And it's not only about finding other energy sources, it's also about using the energy in a smarter way. Better insulated houses and heat pumps work well here in northern Europe, why hasn't this been a priority the last ten years at least?
I'm paying much more for my electricity now even though we hardly use any natural gas in this country, because we're exporting electricity to countries that do, driving up our prices. Their shortsightedness is costing me money and adding more CO2 to our atmosphere. If it was only because of the war in Ukraine I wouldn't mind as much, but come winter and millions of people in other countries are going to burn expensive Russian gas to heat poorly insulated houses leaking heat like a sieve.