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How to cut Russian fossil fuel imports, carbon emissions and energy bills at the same time
(EurActiv, 24 Mar 2022) The horrific Russian attack on Ukraine is changing the world before our eyes – and this is especially evident in the sphere of energy, write Dan Jørgensen and Fatih Birol.
Dan Jørgensen is the Danish minister for climate, energy and utilities; Fatih Birol is the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA). This opinion piece was contributed exclusively to EURACTIV.
The Russian invasion has destabilized global energy markets, setting off sharp spikes in fuel and commodity prices that are hurting consumers around the world and threatening the fragile economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis. It has laid bare the critical role of energy policies for people’s daily lives, our economic security and the future of our planet.
The world now faces a multitude of difficult and interconnected decisions regarding the way we produce and consume energy – both now and in the future – and our response to a changed geopolitical landscape.
The immediate challenge is to wean European economies off Russian fossil fuels, which it has used as a political and economic weapon, while trying to ease the strains in markets to prevent a damaging energy supply crunch.
Today’s energy crisis threatens to affect a wider array of energy sources, and even more countries and people, than the oil shocks of the 1970s. In some economies, it has already resulted in the highest prices in history for natural gas, electricity and petrol. And in today’s volatile environment, we can’t rule out the situation getting worse
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