Despite the anti-Russia rhetoric, Europe continue to purchase Russian gas en masse – A greener life, a greener world

By Anders Lorenzen

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, western countries have pledged to end the purchasing of oil and gas from Russia. 

However, the rhetoric does not meet the action, at least not in Europe.

While the European Union (EU), have reduced its reliance on Russian gas since 2022, there’s still a high dependency, this is despite intense fighting in the region where the infrastructure exists that pumps Russian gas from Russia via Ukraine to European countries such as Hungary and Slovakia.

Reducing Russian gas reliance

With Germany having reduced its Russian gas reliance, Austria is now the biggest European consumer of Russian gas. 

As Ukraine say they are in control of several Russian areas and the area of Sudzha just across the Ukrainian border where gas is being transported from is currently disputed as it is unclear who has the overall control.

Many European countries, including Austria who have taken several actions over the past two years, have found it a large challenge to reduce their dependency on Russian gas.

Currently, eight entry points connect Ukraine with Slovakia, Poland, Romania and Hungary, through which Russian flows can reach the EU. Currently, two are used – at Polish and Slovakian interconnection points – and then the volumes can be transmitted to other countries in central and eastern Europe. 

The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is among the voices that have warned that in the wake of the war, we cannot take our focus away from the larger issue of reducing emissions. Reducing the reliance on Russian oil and gas only becomes a climate-friendly policy if it is replaced with clean energy sources, but if it is used as an excuse to delay the transition away from fossil fuels or even worse build new fossil fuel infrastructure it becomes a climate-causing policy.