The European Union has unveiled a plan to cut out two-thirds of its Russian gas imports by the end of the year, in a major pivot to alternative gas sources and renewable energy following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“It’s abundantly clear we are too dependent on Russia for our energy needs,” said of the European Commission in a press briefing on 8 March. “The answer to this concern for our [energy] security lies in renewable energy and diversification of supply.”
The new EU energy strategy was launched just over an hour before the it would phase out Russian oil and gas imports by the end of 2022, and the US imposed a ban on imports of Russian oil, gas and coal.
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“[Vladimir] Putin has spurred in less than two weeks a historical U-turn in European foreign and energy policy axioms,” says at Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank. Despite the EU’s call for more liquid natural gas imports and gas interconnections, in the longer term Europe is likely to emerge from this crisis much greener than before, he says: “2022 might also be remembered in history books as the watershed moment in which Europe truly accelerated its green transformation.”
The EU currently gets around 45 per cent of its gas imports from Russia. Timmermans said that curbing Russian gas imports by the end of the year, which will require the EU to source the equivalent of about 100 billion cubic metres of gas from elsewhere, will be “bloody hard, but possible”. To replace the Russian gas, farmers will be encouraged to produce more biomethane, while the production of hydrogen from renewable energy will be ramped up. However, the biggest replacement sources will be liquefied natural gas and pipeline imports from other countries, amounting to about 60 billion cubic metres.
European gas storage facilities, some of which are owned by Russia’s state gas firm Gazprom, will also be required to reach 90 per cent capacity by 1 October, to prepare for next winter. However, EU energy commissioner cautioned in a press briefing that storage was “not a silver bullet”.
The blueprint, dubbed , also envisages an acceleration of renewable energy installations, including solar and wind power. It stops short of putting numbers on new targets for renewables, but Simson said planning permission rules must be changed to speed up renewable energy projects. She added that each of the EU’s 27 member states should dedicate two regions to renewable energy schemes.
While the plan gives less focus to energy efficiency, Simson said reducing demand for gas was important too. “It means getting serious about saving energy, which should become everyone’s contribution to solving this current crisis,” she said. , at the climate change think tank E3G, said in a press briefing that the plan should have given energy efficiency higher priority. The EU proposal also sees heat pump installation rates double in the next five years, to reduce gas use.
The UK is also considering how to respond to surging oil and gas prices, which affect the country despite Russian gas imports accounting for just 4 per cent of UK gas supply. The UK’s business secretary said on 8 March that those imports would be stopped by the end of the year, adding that the UK would work with the US, the Netherlands and countries in the Persian Gulf to replace them.
UK prime minister Boris Johnson is also considering easing green energy targets by giving new gas production a “climate change pass”, despite his own advisers last month saying that pumping more gas domestically wouldn’t tackle record high prices.
Several energy experts on 8 March that more fossil fuel production isn’t the answer. at the University of Warwick in the UK said that fracking for shale gas, as some people have suggested as a solution to high energy prices, wouldn’t be fast or big enough. “It’s a distraction,” he said. He added that reducing demand for gas would be one of the quickest ways to make an impact. Small changes, such as people turning radiators offs, turning their gas boilers down and better understanding how their home heating systems work, “can add up”, he said.
The debates over the future of energy policy came as new figures showed a resurgence in burning coal last year , wiping out the savings from pandemic-driven restrictions in 2020.
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