EU’s International Energy Strategy: A Reckless Response to a Global Energy Crisis

By Jessel Thomas First Posted: May 20, 2022 02:13 AM EDT

A new strategy released by the European Union (EU) calls on the United States, Canada, African and Gulf countries to open up new gas supplies to displace supplies of Russian oil and gas.

According to some environmental groups, the strategy fails to address the impacts the energy crisis, the global impacts of the war in Ukraine, and Western sanctions have on developing countries dependent on oil and gas imports. It also contravenes the EU's commitments laid out in the REpowerEU strategy to reduce its gas demand by 30 percent by 2030.

(Photo : 350.org)

Reactions on EU's International Energy Strategy

"It is entirely reckless that the EU calls on African nations to open up more gas supplies to feed their fossil fuel addiction. African countries are faced with a multitude of interlinked and mutually reinforcing crises - climate impacts, water scarcity, energy poverty, insufficient food production, post-covid impacts - leaving millions of people vulnerable and unable to meet their basic needs," said Landry Ninteretse - Africa Team Lead 350.org.

"Russia's outrageous war against Ukraine fully exposed Europe's dependence on fossil fuel imports and lack of political willpower to lead the green revolution globally. The European oil and gas-led energy security has failed, and we have to acknowledge this. The EU is poignantly slow in banning and phasing out Russian fossil fuels and every day still sending about one billion euros to feed Putin's war machine but far more active in mobilizing oil and gas reserves worldwide. This severely undermines the EU global leadership in green transformation declared by the EU Green Deal and brings us back to the dark times of fossil fueled colonialism," said Svitlana Romanko - Stand With Ukraine campaign coordinator, Ukraine.

"In its current form, the External Energy Strategy questions the EU's ability to navigate the ongoing crisis. The EU is about to miss yet another opportunity to take on the role of the global leader supporting the emerging markets and developing economies in addressing the energy and climate emergency. This "international crisis response", driven by the incumbent interests of fossil fuel industry, is short-sighted and risks diluting the strong signal that the remaining REpowerEU strategy sends to foreign partners," said Maria Pastukhova of Energy Diplomacy at E3G.

"Now is the time for renewables to be at the core of global energy policies. Ukraine is not just a wake-up call, it is an eye-opener in the heart of Europe. Instead, the continent, like a drug addict, is turning to Africa in what simply amounts to a rash, stubborn, mindless, colonial pursuit of profit at the expense of people of Africa, the continent and the entire planet. We need to be thinking beyond the bottom line of those who have brought us to the brink of catastrophe. Anything less will be nothing other than willful climate and ecological crimes," said Nnimmo Bassey of Health of Mother Earth Foundation and Oilwatch Africa.

"In 1972, Dr Walter Rodney, Guyana's revolutionary scholar, published the seminal text, 'How Europe underdeveloped Africa.' Fifty years later, it seems that Europe has learnt nothing. European power remains committed to exploitation of our African sisters and brothers and the mindless destruction of the earth through greenhouse gas pollution from fossil gas. European citizens must rein in their rogue governments and switch to renewables before it is too late," said Melinda Janki of A Fair Deal for Guyana - A Fair Deal for the Planet.

"The strategy's heavy focus on securing alternative gas and oil supplies is a short-sighted and a reckless response to the ongoing global energy crisis. It fails to address the impacts of the energy crisis and it will accelerate the climate crisis," Nick Bryer - Europe Team Lead 350.org.

"The EU's new energy strategy is woefully inadequate, and would lock in decades' more extraction of deadly gas and oil. Driving new gas infrastructure development in the United States and across the world while deepening its own dependence on volatile fossil fuels is the last thing Europe should be doing. Europe needs a full-scale mobilization to expand clean, renewable energy and encourage other countries to do the same, and this new plan badly misses the mark," said Collin Rees of Oil Change International.

"The Ukrainian crisis is an opportunity for Europeans to start in their own backyard and move to a people's centred RE and shift away from all fossil fuel. It is time to ramp up RE and fast track the exit from fossil fuels. What a better opportunity to do this. The link between war, 'undemocracy' and fossil fuel is so clear now," said Bobby Peek of GroundWork, Friends of the Earth, South Africa.

"African communities have suffered and lost lives to the intensified and frequent impacts of the climate crises. Cyclone Idai killed more than 3 000 people in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Madagascar. The recent floods in the KwaZulu Natal Province in South Africa destroyed people's homes, and livelihoods, people are still mourning the 443 lives that were lost and more than still 50 missing due to this climate change disaster," said Lorraine Chiponda of Africa Coal Network. "Across the Horn of Africa 13 million people are threatened by severe hunger due to the consistent drought. Africans cannot stand by and watch while the reckless political elite in Europe and the fossil fuel corporations proliferate the burning of fossil fuels which leads to more climate change impacts. Community groups and NGOs in Africa demand the push back on the expansion of fossil fuel extraction in Africa by Europeans and Africans. We demand a Just Transition that puts into perspective the colonial, capitalist, racist, patriarchal and unequal legacy brought by the fossil industry and that justice be delivered to the millions of African people that daily bear the brunt of the climate crisis."

"It is frankly unacceptable that Europe, in the midst of a war reminiscent of World War II, decided to perpetuate the model which led it down this frightening path. Sourcing gas in the midst of a climate crisis from parts of the world it has previously devastated through selfish interests is irresponsible and reprehensible. The opportunistic dangling of a quick cash cow before misguided leaders will only serve to perpetuate a toxic addiction to fossil fuels. Europe should stop spreading the global death sentence oil and gas dependency represents. Instead, it should seize the opportunity to accelerate a transition which needed to have begun long ago," said Lidy Nacpil of Asian Peoples Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD).

"The EU's plans to quit Russian gas do not measure up to the scale of what the moment demands. We shouldn't be wasting time and money on new pipelines and terminals that we don't need - instead we should be pulling out all the stops to boost clean energy and insulation to phase out gas in Europe once and for all. The more we spend importing gas, the more we continue to expose the most vulnerable in our society to unaffordable energy bills, fuel the climate crisis and fund other repressive fossil-fuelled regimes around the world," said Murray Worthy of Global Witness.

InfoGraph: Role in supplying the EU with more oil and gas. Check EU's factsheet here.