For Poland and Bulgaria, Russian gas is over. The two European countries are now supplied with gas “by their EU neighbors”, after Gazprom suspended Russian deliveries, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the economies of the European Union have reviewed their supply links with Russia, for which exports of fossil fuels represent several tens of billions of euros in revenue each month. According to a study by the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research (Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, CREA), 63 billion euros of fossil fuels have thus been exported by Russia since the beginning of the invasion in Ukraine. Coal, crude oil, natural gas transported via pipelines, or in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG), these energy sources all emit CO2, and the European Union is the main importer with more than 70% of the total.
“Russia’s war against Ukraine is largely financed by the aggressor’s coal, oil and gas exports. These same resources are the main cause of another global danger – climate change”, denounced Anna Ackermann, specialist in climate and energy policy, and co-founder of the Ukrainian NGO Center for Environmental Initiatives “Ecoaction”. Many of the largest importers of these fossil products are European. Germany is in the lead with 9.1 billion euros of imports, followed by Italy with 6.9 billion euros. Within the EU, the Netherlands 5.6 billion euros, just like France (3.8 billion) also massively imported fossil fuels.
Germany singled out
In its study, the CREA looked at the ports receiving fuel deliveries from Russia. It shows that oil deliveries to foreign ports fell by 20% during the first three weeks of April, compared to January-February before the invasion. But he notes that coal deliveries have on the other hand increased by 20%, as well as LNG deliveries which have doubled, despite the economic sanctions imposed on Russia by the Europeans. “Economic sanctions that undermine the Kremlin’s ability, if not the will, to wage war on Ukraine are among the essential elements of the response to the invasion. But these sanctions have, however, been undermined by the continued imports of fuels fossils from Russia, in particular to the EU”, deplores the CREA in this study. The body also points out that a quarter of Russian fossil fuel exports have reached just six EU ports: Rotterdam (Netherlands), Maasvlakte (Netherlands), Trieste (Italy), Gdansk (Poland) and Zeebrugge (Belgium).
Far ahead of its European neighbors in terms of imports, Germany is particularly singled out by specialists and NGOs. “Berlin is the biggest buyer of Russian fossil fuels. The world expects Germany to show strength and determination towards Russia, but instead it is financing war and blocking a European embargo on the Russian oil,” said Bernice Lee, research director at UK think tank Chatham House.
Accelerate the transition to renewables
However, the sanctions have an effect on exports. The CREA report thus underlines that Russia is struggling to divert cargoes not taken care of by European buyers and notes a sharp increase in the number of ships leaving Russian ports without a destination. Russia is therefore forced to deliver its fossil fuels elsewhere. The authors note a sharp upturn in oil shipments to India, Egypt and other countries that do not “usually” receive these Russian exports. Shipments which are however far from sufficient to compensate for the drop in exports to Europe, they say.
This is enough to push Europeans to cut themselves off from dependence on fossil fuels and to accelerate the transition to cleaner energies. “We have an opportunity as a global community to recognize that fossil fuels create both war and climate destruction, we can once and for all take a crucial step by choosing energy security and resilience by advancing the transition to clean energy”, pleads Anna Ackermann.