The global energy crisis stemming from the conflict is raising the prospect of returning to some far from green sources of electricity.
Will the war launched by Russia in Ukraine promote the energy transition? Or will it, on the contrary, be more of a brake? We can fear it, as certain measures planned to compensate for the fall in Russian gas and oil imports are far from being green.
The European Union, very dependent on Russian hydrocarbons, thus envisages “without taboo“, according to Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans, the return to coal, the source of electricity that emits the most greenhouse gases. The reopening of coal and nuclear power plants is helping to replace Russian gas, confirms Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market.
Even the influential International Energy Agency (IEA), which ardently campaigns for climate transition, recognizes that increased use of coal would make it possible to go “faster and further” independence from Russian hydrocarbons. While regretting that “climate change is descending today in…
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