War in Ukraine and energy dependency: What Europe needs to do to wean itself off Russian gas

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.

Published in EuroNews on 8.3.2022

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one could ask what went wrong and what will happen now concerning so-called "energy politics".

The hostility of Vladimir Putin towards Ukraine, and the EU in general, has been seemingly increasing since the completion of the Nord Stream 2 (NS 2) project while also seeing demand for the Russian energy resources in the EU increasing.

The NS 2 project connects Russia’s gas resources directly to the EU countries, mainly Germany. The pipeline is about 1,200 km long, arriving at the city of Greifswald in the northeast of Germany from Ust-Luga in northwestern Russia.  The total capacity of NS 2 is 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year. This controversial project has been criticised for various reasons, including the environmental impact of the pipeline, security threats from Russia to the post-Soviet states, and the accusation that it is not about energy only but rather corruption involved, implicating among others former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder...

Read the full text on: https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/03/08/war-in-ukraine-and-energy-dependency-what-europe-needs-to-do-to-wean-itself-off-russian-ga 

Farid Karimi is a senior researcher and lecturer in energy transition at Finland’s Novia University of Applied Sciences. 

Photo: Unsplash/PA Coal Power Plant - steam network