Europe's Gas Plan

Presentation of REPowerEU by Kadri Simon, European Commissioner for Energy, and Frans Timmermans, Vice-President of the European Commission. Photo by European Commission. Source:: e3g.org

As the war in Ukraine has dragged on for the past several months, decreasing Europe’s reliance on Russian gas has become an ever more pressing priority of the EU Commission. Now it has its solution: “REPowerEU.”

This plan attempts to cut Russian gas imports by 66% by the end of the year and cut dependency completely by 2027 by saving energy and quickening the transition towards renewables. Part of the REPowerEU plan is a goal of 45% energy share in renewables by 2025 and a policy that phases in the requirement that solar panels are built on all new buildings.

Though REPowerEU does accelerate Europe on a course to a greener future, it still has several flaws. The biggest one is that it doesn’t cure Europe of its fossil fuel addiction. Joining REPowerEU was a new international energy strategy, which intends to send 50 million cubic meters of natural gas to Europe from various countries, including the United States. Also, Europe’s new energy plan calls for 20 billion euros to be raised through selling emissions allowances from the EU’s emission trading system. The problem with this is that it could lower carbon prices, which would ultimately cause a rise in carbon emissions.

Learn more about Europe's Gas Plan:

CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/18/energy/europe-repower-plan-russian-energy/index.html

Grist: https://grist.org/international/europe-has-a-plan-to-get-off-russian-gas-energy-experts-say-it-is-not-enough/

EU Commission: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_22_3131