Energy Prices: Ursula von der Leyen emphasizes importance of green energy transition

Brussels, October 21 - Neftegaz.RU. The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, addressed the European Parliament Plenary on the preparation of the European Council meeting of 21-22 October, which focused on the recent spike in energy prices.

Von der Leyen admitted that there is something specific to the European situation:

• If we look at the gas and the suppliers, while Gazprom has honoured its long-term contracts with us, it did not respond to higher demand as it did in previous years
• So Europe is today too reliant on gas, it is too dependent on gas imports
• As I said, we import 90% of the gas we use.

Recalling that the energy crisis has shown that the EU need to accelerate investment in renewable energy., the President underlined:

• The answer has to do with diversifying our suppliers, but also keeping the role of natural gas as transitional fuel and, crucially, with speeding up the transition to clean energy
• The European Green Deal is in the mid- and long-term a pillar of European energy sovereignty in the 21^st century

Through the EU's recovery programme NextGenerationEU, €36 billion has already been earmarked for clean energy, from hydrogen to offshore wind power.
Looking ahead to the climate summit at the end of the month, she added:

• The upcoming COP26 in Glasgow will be the moment for the whole world to speed up action
• Because the world is not yet on track to match our commitments under the Paris Agreement
• So much more needs to be done to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees over pre-industrial levels
• The European Union will bring to Glasgow the highest level of ambition

There is currently no coordinated EU policy on strategic gas reserves, with each member state having its own mechanisms for the building of gas stocks.
According to Gas Infrastructure Europe, the EU's gas storage sites are currently filled to just 75.7% of capacity compared with 95.2% a year ago.