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Casablanca – The German government announced on Sunday that it will take emergency steps to ensure its energy supply in the face of recent drops in Russian gas deliveries, including expanded usage of coal.
Germany’s decision comes after Russian energy powerhouse Gazprom warned last week that it will drastically reduce exports to Europe — from 40% to 33% — in the face of the Western-Russian standoff over the Ukraine crisis.
According to the German government, this is a “political decision” aimed at affecting the arm wrestling between Moscow and Western countries over the Ukraine war.
“To reduce gas consumption, less gas must be used to generate electricity. Coal-fired power plants will have to be used more instead,” the German ministry of economy said in a statement.
Robert Habeck, Germany’s Economy and Climate Minister, said his country will rely increasingly on coal-fired power plants to generate energy, and a law giving the legal foundation is presently being debated in parliament.
Berlin’s decision is a U-turn by the government coalition of Social Democrats, Greens, and the liberal FDP, which had pledged to phase out coal use by 2030. The move is “bitter but indispensable for reducing gas consumption,” Habeck said in a statement to the press.
He continued: “Security of supply is currently guaranteed. But the situation is serious. Gas consumption must fall further, and in return more gas must be put into the storage facilities, otherwise things will really get tight in the winter. We will now take the next steps.”
Although Berlin has managed to cut Russia’s portion of its natural gas supply from 55% prior to the invasion of Ukraine to 35% now, notably by increasing supply from nations like Norway and the Netherlands, as well as using more Liquefied Natural Gas contracts (LNG), it is still dependent to Russian gas to a considerable extent.
The measures unveiled today also include an “auction” method for selling gas to manufacturers, which the German government claims would help reduce consumption by the dominant industry.
