EU sets out plan to tackle dependence on Russian fossil fuels and climate crisis

May 22 ------ The European Commission (EC) has presented a plan on how the EU can rapidly reduce its dependence on Russian fossil fuels and fast forward the green transition. The European Union’s REPowerEU plan came as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, highlighting the risks involved with being reliant on Russian fossil fuels, given that Russia produces and exports large amounts of oil and gas to the European states. An outline of the plan was revealed by the EC in early March 2022, noting that this could reduce Europe’s demand for Russian gas by two-thirds before the end of the year.

The EC presented the REPowerEU Plan, representing the EU’s response to the hardships and global energy market disruption caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The EC emphasized that there is a double urgency to transform Europe’s energy system: ending the EU’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels and tackling the climate crisis. According to EC, measures in this plan can respond to the ambition of phasing out Europe’s dependency on Russian fossil fuels faster through energy savings, diversification of energy supplies, and accelerated roll-out of renewable energy to replace fossil fuels in homes, industry, and power generation.

Commenting on the REPowerEU proposal, European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, said: “We can replace Russian fossil fuels by working on three levels: On the demand side, saving energy. On the supply side, diversifying our energy imports away from fossil fuels and accelerating the clean energy transition. Fortunately, we have the foundation for doing this already in place.” She also added: “REPowerEU will help us to save more energy, accelerate the phasing out of fossil fuels and kick-start investments on a new scale. This will be speed-charging for our European Green Deal.”

Within point number one, energy savings, the commission proposes to enhance long-term energy efficiency measures, including an increase from 9 per cent to 13 per cent of the binding Energy Efficiency Target under the ‘Fit for 55' package of European Green Deal legislation. The EC also detailed short-term behavioral changes, which could cut gas and oil demand by 5 per cent, and encouraged member states to start specific communication campaigns targeting households and industry. The Commission also sets out contingency measures in case of severe supply disruption.

When it comes to point number two – diversification of supplies – the EU has been working with international partners to diversify supplies for several months and has secured record levels of LNG imports and higher pipeline gas deliveries. The newly created EU Energy Platform will enable voluntary common purchases of gas, LNG, and hydrogen by pooling demand, optimizing infrastructure use and coordinating outreach to suppliers. As a next step, the Commission will consider the development of a ‘joint purchasing mechanism’ which will negotiate and contract gas purchases on behalf of participating member states.

Furthermore, the EU External Energy Strategy, adopted today, prioritizes the EU’s commitment to the global green and just energy transition. In the Mediterranean and the North Sea, major hydrogen corridors will be developed.

However, the EU’s plan was criticized by Transport & Environment (T&E), a clean transport campaign group, as it contains no measures to immediately implement oil demand reductions despite aiming to achieve a 5 per cent reduction in short-term oil and gas demand. “As it stands, REPowerEU will do little to prevent a simple shift from dependence on Russia to dependence on Saudi Arabia,” T&E said in a statement on Wednesday. Anna Krajinska, REPowerEU coordinator, T&E, commented: “That means we remain ill-prepared for the proposed Russian oil embargo and carbon emissions won’t fall.”

Source: offshore-energy.biz