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This shift is most visible in Europe, which is heavily dependent on imported Russian energy to keep the lights and heat on and constantly experiencing rising energy prices. The new conflict, and the escalating sanctions and scrapped pipeline plans in response, have raised concerns that additional projected price increases could trigger supply shortages as soon as next season.
“We must be independent from Russian oil, coal and gas,” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said in a statement on Monday. “We cannot rely on suppliers that clearly threaten us. We must act now to reduce the impact of energy price increases, diversify gas supplies for the future and accelerate the clean energy transition.
The European Commission recently announced a plan on how the region can move away from Russian fossil fuels before 2030, including a short-term push to find fossil fuel alternatives to Russian gas imports and optimizing energy efficiency combined with a long-term shift away from fossils. fuel for renewable energy is consistent with the regional climate plan.
“I see this as an important step in furthering the decarbonisation of the European economy,” Andreas Goldthau, an energy transition expert at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, told BuzzFeed News via email.
The commission’s modeling suggests about “two-thirds of Russia’s gas is replaced in a year just through these measures, which strikes me as very ambitious,” Goldthau said. He then added: “At current prices, this means significant costs for industry and households, and perhaps very high costs for some.”
Meanwhile, also on Friday, President Joe Biden announced that the US will immediately ban Russian energy imports, but another layer of economic sanctions to punish the country for its attack on Ukraine.
“We are moving forward on this ban, recognizing that many of our European allies and partners may not be able to join us,” Biden said, noting that US domestic oil production gives the country flexibility that Europe does not have.
But despite its massive fossil fuel production at home, the US is not immune to the dramatic fluctuations in energy prices set by global energy markets. On Thursday, gas prices hit a national average of $4.31 per gallon (adjusted for inflation, the record for gas prices was $5.53 per gallon, set in 2008). Biden’s solution to prevent this problem from recurring is the same as Europe’s: embrace clean energy.
“To protect our economy over the long term, we must be energy independent,” Biden said. “You need to motivate them to speed up the transition to clean energy.”
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