Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria continues to enjoy “de facto free gas” from Russia’s Gazprom – a situation which satisfies no one but ensures political stability in the Russian-controlled region, the country’s energy minister told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview.
Renewable gases are gaining ground in Europe, with France on track to exceed its 2023 intermediate objectives for biomethane injection into the grid. To catch up with the industry, EURACTIV France spoke to Laurence Poirier-Dietz, director general of GRDF, Europe's largest gas distributor.
Concerns have been raised that while the heat has been on Germany's practical response to the war in Ukraine, France has not fared much better. But according to the Chairman of the French National Assembly Thomas Gassilloud, France's measures, including humanitarian aid, help Russia to understand just how serious the situation is.
Matthieu Auzanneau, director of The Shift Project, an energy transition think-tank, spoke to EURACTIV France about the risks to the EU's oil and gas supplies and the need for energy sobriety to improve security of supply.
In an interview with EURACTIV, Witold Waszczykowski, the former foreign minister of Poland and a leading lawmaker in the European Parliament, gave a less than optimistic account of the extraordinary EU summit on Ukraine held on 30-31 May.
With Russia’s war in Ukraine, the European Union is probably entering a long period of high gas prices, warns Ilaria Conti, saying the EU should use the crisis to mandate a storage obligation on EU member states and push for higher targets on renewable energy.
European gas infrastructure operators are preparing for all scenarios in the coming winter, including one “with no Russian gas at all” and supply cuts for consumers, says Torben Brabo.
Russia’s aggression in Ukraine is prompting the district heating sector to look at other options than fossil gas, with the industry’s representative in Brussels underlining the huge untapped potential of waste heat coming from industry and data centres among the immediately available options.
Emil Boc, the former prime minister of Romania, spoke with EURACTIV about the influx of Ukrainian refugees, the EU's dependence on Russian gas and the EU's unity on the sidelines of a summit of the regions and cities in Marseille.
Moldova aspires to join the European Union and the former Soviet republic has told Russia that this is its choice, Moldovan President Maia Sandu said on Tuesday (14 December), ahead of the Eastern Partnership summit.
Sven Giegold, a Green MEP who is one of the key negotiators in the German government coalition talks, told EURACTIV that Germany will need "small volumes" of additional gas capacity in order to "stabilise" renewable power on the electricity grid. However, he is opposed to the inclusion of gas in the EU's green finance taxonomy.
In a wide-ranging interview, the Russian ambassador to the EU Vladimir Chizhov discussed Afghanistan, the ‘Crimea Platform’, carbon border tax, COVID and vaccines, and the new political season.
The gas industry is committed to ensuring that by 2050, 100% of gas is renewable or decarbonised, but to achieve that, it will have to diversify, Patrick Corbin, president of the French Gas Association (AFG) said in an interview with EURACTIV France.
The hard line defended by France over the inclusion of nuclear power in the green finance taxonomy is a dead end because there is no majority in favour of it at the EU level, warns lawmaker Pascal Canfin. Instead, the French MEP argues for including nuclear energy in the 'transition' category.
Before the Trans-Adriatic pipeline (TAP) was built, Italian businesses were paying a higher price for energy compared to their European peers, said Vugar Veysalov, head of external affairs at TAP. The new pipeline, which will also supply Greece and Bulgaria, will bring greater flexibility of prices, he told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview.
Whether in the European recovery plan or the just transition fund, Pascal Canfin says he is in favour of applying the EU sustainable finance taxonomy, which allows drawing a line between gas projects that merit public funding and those that don’t.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) decided to scrub its loan books of fossil fuels in 2019 but the lender's head of energy policy, Andrew McDowell, insists that there is more to the change of direction than ditching coal and gas.
With Europe’s climate neutrality target soon becoming law, energy TSOs have launched joint scenarios to test gas and electricity networks against growing shares of renewables. Under current plans, they foresee 300-800 TWh of renewables feeding into electrolysers by 2050.
The new government in Vienna will aim for “an end to nuclear energy” in the EU, Thomas Waitz told EURACTIV Slovakia. The MEP-elect and Green Party negotiator also calls on the EU to acknowledge that Poland will need financial support in the transition away from coal.
While visiting Paris, American economist Jeremy Rifkin talked to EURACTIV France about his hopes for the new European Commission's Green Deal, while calling for a climate narrative that inspires real change across society.
To understand its full methane emission footprint and its impact on the climate, Europe needs to assess oil and gas imports from countries such as Algeria, Russia and Qatar, for which no data is available yet, says Stefan Schwietzke.
In a wide-ranging interview, Russia’s Ambassador to the EU Vladimir Chizhov spoke about gas transit talks with Ukraine, NATO and EU enlargement, nuclear arms control, Russia’s sales of the S-400 anti-aircraft system, the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and Brexit.
Europe has to get serious about the hydrogen economy if it really wants to reach net-zero emissions as quickly as possible, says Nils Anders Røkke. This is why decarbonised natural gas, using carbon capture and storage (CCS), will be crucial to ramp up hydrogen production in the short term, he argues.
Switching from coal to gas in power generation is the single most important action Europe can take to get on the path to net-zero emissions by 2050, argues Simon Blakey, a European gas expert.
