Dr. Conca asks the question whether the crisis in Ukraine will curb European Union dependency on Russian gas. It should, but it probably will not. Despite European commitment to decreasing the use of fossil fuel and reducing its carbon emissions, natural gas use keeps increasing, even in Germany. At the same time, nuclear energy, the best hedge against Russian fuel imports, will decline as Germany shuts down its nuclear fleet. Replacing coal with natural gas is the easy way to make low-carbon progress. Unfortunately, it has increased Russian influence.
The central problem for Europe is that the EU is the world largest energy importer. The EU does not have the fossil fuel resources to meet its energy needs, and has to import 70 per cent of its oil, 50 per cent of its natural gas and 44 per cent of its coal. At a cost of almost 600 billion Euros a year. The IEA projects this dependency will increase by almost 20 per cent in the next 20 years, even in the face of an anticipated increase in renewable energy, which is not expected to measure up. Russia provides over half of the EU fossil fuel imports. In 2013, Europe imported a third of its oil from Russia - over 2 billion barrels, more than from any other region of the world, plus 40 per cent of its natural gas and a little over 25 per cent of its coal. Germany was the biggest recipient of Russian gas.
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