BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders met Thursday to discuss ways to ease the pain of soaring energy bills for consumers while seeking to safeguard energy supplies to the 27-nation bloc by speeding up the transition away from polluting fossil fuels to sustainable alternatives.

The energy debate at the EU leaders’ summit comes amid spiralling prices that are pummelling households and businesses still reeling from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The talks also come just 10 days ahead of the opening of a UN climate summit that is widely seen as the last chance to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU’s executive and its member states already are working to ease the burden of soaring energy bills on households and businesses.

She said leaders also will have to look at the way energy markets function but stressed that “in the mid and long term, it is very clear that the strategy has to be to invest massively in clean and renewable energy” produced in Europe.

The debate on spiralling energy prices also takes place against a backdrop of frosty relations with Russia, a key supplier of gas to Europe.

Von der Leyen said Wednesday that with the bloc importing 90% of its gas — much of it from strategic rival Russia — “this makes us vulnerable.”

Gas makes up one-quarter of all European energy consumption.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called the energy price explosion this year the consequence “of a big geopolitical game.”

Von der Leyen has said that while Norway had raised its gas exports to the bloc to meet increased demand, Russia’s Gazprom had not gone beyond honouring its long-term contracts with the EU.

Gas prices have soared this year to 95 euros from about 19 euros per megawatt hour, affecting everything from household heating bills to farmers and food producers.

The EU’s executive commission says that lower-income households are hardest hit because they spend a higher proportion of their income on energy.

Many countries have already offered energy tax cuts to ease the pain.

While all leaders want to minimise the impact of soaring energy prices on their populations, they differ on how to do it.

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