With Europe’s reliance on natural gas from Russia thrown into sharp relief by the invasion of Ukraine, an analysis released by the International Energy Agency has outlined a series of steps the European Union can take to reduce its imports of Russian gas by more than a third within a year.
Last year the EU imported about 140 billion cubic metres of gas by pipeline from Russia and about 15 billion cubic metres of liquefied natural gas (LNG). That accounted for 45 per cent of the bloc’s gas imports and almost 40 per cent of its total consumption. But the war in Ukraine has the EU searching for a way to dial back its dependence on Russian fuel to avoid further plumping that country’s coffers.
The International Energy Agency (IEA), a Paris-based organization that advises industrialized countries on energy issues, said the measures it has proposed would also support the shift to clean energy in a secure and affordable way and pave the way for further greenhouse gas emissions reductions.
“Europe needs to rapidly reduce the dominant role of Russia in its energy markets and ramp up the alternatives as quickly as possible,” IEA executive director Fatih Birol told media Thursday.
The IEA report comes on the heels of an emergency meeting of the agency’s members this week, where they agreed to release 60 million barrels of oil from emergency stockpiles in an effort to tame crude prices, which have surged in reaction to the invasion of Ukraine.
Oil prices, however, remain high and surged again Thursday as the war triggered a dash for commodities that could be in short supply. Oil was up almost 20 per cent in a week, with West Texas Intermediate hitting more than US$110. Prices for everything from coal to natural gas and aluminum also climbed as Western countries tightened their sanctions on Russia.
Mr. Birol said the IEA and its members are closely monitoring markets. The volume of reserves is high enough to take further action if it is warranted, he added.
The agency’s 10-point gas plan includes several key actions that are intended to work in tandem.
It includes signing no new gas contracts with Russia and turning instead to suppliers such as Azerbaijan, Qatar, the United States and Algeria. It also proposes expediting the deployment of solar and wind energy sources and the replacement of gas boilers with heat pumps; ramping up energy-efficiency measures in homes and businesses; and encouraging consumers to temporarily lower their thermostats by one degree.
Taken together, those steps could reduce EU imports of Russian gas by more than 50 billion cubic metres within a year, the IEA said. The plan would also help move Europe toward reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, it added.
Mr. Birol said refusing to sign new Russian gas contracts would also send an important political message to Moscow.
The agency noted that there are strategies the EU could use to reduce its reliance on Russian gas even more quickly, but those options would cost more and do not align with the European Green Deal, an agreement to transition to a low-carbon economy.
The European Commission for Energy will table a proposal next week outlining how Europe can become free of its dependence on Russian gas as soon as possible, Commissioner Kadri Simson said Thursday. She added that the new IEA report would help inform that plan.
“The turbulence of the past days and weeks has reminded us once again of the need to diversify our gas supplies away from Russia and accelerate the clean energy transition,” she said, adding that it is a “strategic imperative for the European Union.”
Barbara Pompili, the Minister for the Ecological Transition of France, which currently holds the EU presidency, said Thursday that the bloc is also ramping up the connection of Ukraine’s power grid to that of Europe, hoping to complete it in the next 15 days.
With a report from Reuters.
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