The military conflict in Ukraine that began in February and the extensive sanctions against Russia that have been introduced following this have led to a volte-face in the European Union’s energy policy. Under pressure from both external partners and its internal political elite, the EU has declared that it is prepared to abandon Russian gas, oil and coal completely by 2027.
Economy
It is no exaggeration to say that the start of Russia’s military action in Ukraine and the ensuing sanctions against Russia have brought about a tectonic shift in the global economy, in which trade relations and links that have existed for decades risk being severed. One of the areas most affected by the crisis is energy.
The conflict that flared up at the end of February between Russia and Ukraine has been a massive shock to the entire political landscape of the European Union. Its seismic waves are continuing to reverberate in all its economies’ markets and industries.
With the warmer months when gas storage facilities are usually filled for the next winter approaching, Europe is struggling to find ways to replace Russian gas with potential alternatives. Attention is naturally turning to Norway, the second largest gas supplier to the continent.
Spot prices for gas in Europe reached a historical high on 21 December 2021, exceeding $2,000 per thousand cubic metres of gas for the first time. By the end of January 2022, the price of gas had experienced a double downward correction. The situation in the European gas market remains complex however. According to Emily […]
The situation that has developed around Nord Stream 2 in recent months has become so confused that one almost wonders whether the pipeline exists at all. European politicians mention the project so often though, that one would think it had been operating and pumping billions of cubic metres a year to the European Union for […]
Groningen is one of the largest gas fields in the world, and was a source of prosperity for the Netherlands for over half a century. For several years now, however, it has been nothing but a serious headache for the Dutch government. Coronavirus and failures in energy transformation could hinder the field’s decommissioning. Why the […]
It is entirely mistaken to call the present situation a “European gas crisis.” Its significance goes far beyond simply the problems in regulating the gas market. What we are seeing is a full-scale energy crisis, which in fact has wider potential: all segments of European energy have structural problems. The gas power sector has simply […]
2021 has seen issues relating to the environment becoming a key topic throughout the world, perhaps even displacing coronavirus, which has been the dominant theme of the last two years. In the context of an unusually cold winter and a hot, dry summer, which brought disaster and destruction in their wake virtually everywhere in the […]
The environment was a crucial theme in Germany’s 2021 election campaign and predictably, the Greens want to make it central to the coalition agreement. What exactly the country’s new energy policy will look like, taking into account the country’s accelerated switch from coal power is however as yet unclear even to ministers themselves. It is […]
The construction of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), one of the most large-scale international energy projects, was launched in Provence over thirty