“This is the usual green demagoguery”
The EU summit will take place in Brussels on Thursday, where the EU countries are going to discuss a new gas strategy. In particular, they want to abandon long-term gas contracts after 2049. In turn, Russia has always stood for long-term relations, sealed by a treaty. Sergei Pikin, Director of the Energy Development Fund, said how Moscow will react to the new EU initiative and why the Europeans have decided to do it at all.
– Today it became known that the European Commission wants to ban the extension of long-term contracts for the supply of natural gas to Europe after 2049. With what it can be connected?
– I would not take this statement seriously. This is a purely declarative statement. In the summer, the European Union took a course to completely abandon the consumption of hydrocarbons by 2050, to create a carbon-neutral economy, but, frankly, it is not clear how they are going to do this.
– Probably with the help of innovative technologies.
– So far, everything is happening exactly the opposite. Green energy (we are talking about wind turbines – author’s note) did not give them this year even the amount of energy that they had before, as a result – we had to increase the supply of coal to Europe this year. So much for green energy. Coal-fired CHP is much more damaging than gas.
– And what is it connected with? Why couldn’t the wind turbines provide them with energy?
– It all depends on the strength of the wind, and when using solar panels on the number of sunny days. Energy based on renewable sources is still in its infancy, humankind has not yet invented powerful storage batteries, so it is very presumptuous and imprudent to say that they will be able to refuse purchases of our gas in less than 30 minutes. So far, Europe cannot even give up our coal, fuel purchases are only growing.
– Nevertheless, technological progress does not stand still, what if the Europeans manage to find an alternative to natural fuel?
– Even so, but there is still a chemical industry, housing and communal services – they certainly cannot do without our gas. Therefore, I would not take such statements seriously. This is pure demagoguery, and a green one. In the West, it is the environmental agenda that now rules the society, so the European Commission wants to set a time benchmark: “Here we are in a trend, in the middle of the century we will achieve carbon neutrality.
– And how are they going to solve this issue in our country or in any way?
– Of course, it will be necessary to reduce the consumption of hydrocarbons, but in Russia they also strive to increase the compensatory capabilities of nature, our forests and swamps can absorb carbon dioxide emissions, so work is also underway in this direction.
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