Ljubljana - The newspaper Finance makes some suggestions to the government in Tuesday's commentary headlined What We Are Forgetting When We Talk of Costly Energy, including making it possible to turn unspent tourism vouchers into energy vouchers.

The paper notes that investment in self-supply makes for a profitable investment even without state subsidies and that energy efficiency and saving are increasingly important and generate savings for consumers.

It also notes that buying power has become a complex job for large consumers that looks more like managing financial portfolio than managing buildings. "Local and national government institutions are thus advised to consider linking up for such purchases.

"[...] costly energy is the most efficient stimulus to reduce the carbon footprint. We can expect increasingly less EU money for awareness rising campaigns," the paper writes, suggesting NGOs counting on such money should consider changing their activity.

The paper also notes that while the cost of district heating can be reduced by burning waste, given the local elections this year waste incineration plants are unlikely to get vocal support from mayoral candidates.

"Reducing pollution reduces costs," the paper says, citing the European Commission's 2018 Energy Union Factsheet Slovenia, which showed air pollution caused Slovenia EUR 988 million a year in health costs, while the IMF in 2015 calculated Slovenia paid EUR 1.08 billion in budget funds a year for the damage caused by fossil fuel burning.