The European Commission has published plans to move away from all Russian fossil fuels by 2030 including gas. The project, known as REPowerEU will seek to diversify gas supplies, speed up the roll-out of renewable gases and replace gas in heating and power generation. The report states that this could reduce reliance on Russian gas by two thirds before the end of the year.

The measures include accelerating the transition to renewable energy. “Putin’s war in Ukraine demonstrates the urgency of accelerating our clean energy transition,” said Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal, Frans Timmermans. Let’s dash into renewable energy at lightning speed. Renewables are a cheap, clean, and potentially endless source of energy and instead of funding the fossil fuel industry elsewhere, they create jobs here.”

The REPowerEU plan will increase the resilience of the EU-wide energy system based on two pillars: Diversifying gas supplies, via higher Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and pipeline imports from non-Russian suppliers, and larger volumes of biomethane and renewable hydrogen production and imports; and, reducing faster the use of fossil fuels in our homes, buildings, industry, and power system, by boosting energy efficiency, increasing renewables and electrification, and addressing infrastructure bottlenecks.

Currently the EU imports around 90 per cent of its gas and almost half of those come from Russia, followed by Norway and Algeria. Russia also provides 25% of oil and 45% of coal.