It's cold. Really cold. So cold that we're using more gas than we've done in a decade, and people are worried we're going to run out.
What it means: The UK is the second largest gas consumer in Europe after Germany. And right now, Emma's made us all feel pretty chilly. We're turning up the heat in our homes, and gas supply is struggling to meet demand.
The closing of the North Sea pipeline (they found a crack in it and figured they should probably fix that) means that right now we're relying on imports of gas from Russia, through Europe (which, as you may have noticed, we're currently renegotiating all our trade deals with) to feed our heaters.
If push comes to shove, it's likely that big businesses and factors will be asked to lower their consumption of gas, to prioritise people trying to keep warm – but it's not come to that just yet.
