The atrocities committed by Russian forces in Bucha and other Ukrainian towns make a decision that was already necessary even more urgent. The European Union, which has so far acted with commendable unity, must end its reliance on Russia’s hydrocarbons as soon as possible. Ukraine, which is fighting for its survival as a nation-state, may not have more time than that to avert defeat or dismemberment.
Although it’s a tall task, the consensus among the union’s 27 member states is going in this direction. The EU has agreed to embargo Russian coal, and discussions are underway to do the same with oil. Reducing gas imports, although more contentious, should also be on the table.
Such a boycott will be easier for some states than others. Broadly, the further west a country is in the EU, the less reliant it is on Russian energy; the further east, the more so. Germany, in particular, has spent decades making itself more dependent on Russian gas. It still has no ports that can receive and re-gasify liquefied natural gas coming by ship. Foolishly, it’s also phasing out its last three nuclear power plants this year.
The economic risks of an abrupt blockade of Russian energy are therefore huge. Gas and oil don’t just keep the lights on. They also go into the specialty chemicals at the beginning of complex supply chains. Manufacturers are still recovering from a supply shock in semiconductors; they don’t need another in molecules.
One way to mitigate the pain would be to forgo an outright embargo in favor of punitively high tariffs on Russian gas. This would hammer the profits collected by Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned behemoth, while minimizing disruptions to supply. The revenue collected could then be used to ease the sting of higher prices.
Many in Europe have already shown a willingness to sacrifice. Poland has declared it will end Russian energy imports this year. That’s perhaps not surprising: It’s on the EU’s frontline, accommodates most of the Ukrainian refugees, and worries that Putin could attack it next. Others in the region — such as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — see the world in much the same way. More surprising is Italy’s willingness to agree to go along; it has in the past been roughly as dependent as Germany.
Others in the EU are more problematic. Hungary, for instance, opposes an embargo. Its right-wing prime minister, Viktor Orban, has for years been pals with Putin. This week, he won another term in office on the promise that he alone can keep Hungary safe from a wider conflagration. The EU and NATO must now lean on him to honor his country’s alliances.
All this makes the role of the remaining fence-sitters so important. Chief among those are Austria and Germany. They’ve already conceded that they can no longer appease Putin as has long been their wont. Now they must also accept that even a high price for defunding Putin’s regime is worth paying.
It helps that Europe knew it needed to go down this road even before the war. Ending dependence on Putin’s fossil fuels can be the first step toward a broader goal. That’s why the build-out of new LNG terminals and other stopgap measures should coincide with a redoubled effort to move entirely to solar, wind, green hydrogen, nuclear and other carbon-free energy sources.
Europeans have rightly been eager to show solidarity with Ukraine. The scale of the atrocities now underway means that they — and the rest of the world — will need to do more if they want to stop fueling Putin’s war machine.
More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion:
•
Only One Thing Will Help Ukraine Now: Therese Raphael
•
Putin Has Fallen Victim to the Dictator’s Disease: Hal Brand
•
The U.S. Needs a Strategic Reserve for Green Energy: Conor Sen
The Editors are members of the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
"gas" - Google News
April 08, 2022 at 03:06PM
https://ift.tt/IY0U9pC
Analysis | Europe Must End Its Addiction to Russia's Natural Gas - The Washington Post
"gas" - Google News
https://ift.tt/1CgRifj
https://ift.tt/TFGn4N9
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Analysis | Europe Must End Its Addiction to Russia's Natural Gas - The Washington Post"
Post a Comment