Germany wants to fully become independent from Russian fossil fuel – minister

By Trend

Germany wants to fully become independent from Russian fossil fuel, said Annalena Baerbock, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, Germany, addressing the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue, Trend reports.

“Climate change mitigation and energy transition are about the future of our planet, our families and our children. But it is even more than that and we’re seeing this now it is also about specific security interests and geopolitical security in the 21st century,” she said.

The minister pointed out that the war in Ukraine shows that Europe has to become fully independent from Russian fossil fuel imports.

“We always knew this as Europeans at the latest since 2014 and a strategy was launched to diversify our energy imports. But we didn’t really take action then and now we see the consequences in a very tragic way. This is why it is more important that we now become fully independent from fossil fuel import from Russia. There have been a lot of discussions also in the EU about fossil fuel embargo. When we talk about an embargo, we expect all countries join this action. But there are some countries which also dependent on fossil fuel imports. When we in Germany and Europe see to become independent from fossil fuels, we cannot export our energy crisis to other countries. This is our global responsibility in this very difficult time. Germany wants to fully become independent from Russian fossil fuel. For the transitional period, as we have to do many things at the same time now, we have to work on energy transition, get rid of fossil fuel imports from Russia, find other sources. So, in the short term, we will need oil and gas from other countries. In parallel, like all other countries, we will in the medium and long term prepare to make transition to renewables and to boost energy efficiency. Investments in renewables are investments in security,” noted Baerbock.