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When Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, Europe was confronted with the uncomfortable reality that in buying Russian gas, it was giving money to the Kremlin which in turn was being used to fund its military effort, but Europe is highly reliant on Russian energy supplies. Some countries, such as Bulgaria, source as much as 90 per cent of its gas from Russia, Germany relies on it for more than a third of its gas supply.

Jonathan Elkind, a senior research scholar at the Centre on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, estimates that Russia could be getting as much as 800 million dollars per day in revenues from its exports of energy to Europe. He believes that Europe could withdraw from buying Russian gas, but that it will take significant coordination between the European states to do this. In addition, pulling away from the reliance on Russian energy could involve a renegotiation on environmental pledges. In Germany, this could mean the decommissioning of nuclear plants could be halted and the creation of a coal reserve.

Photo: A power plant Engie in Drogenbos, near Brussels, Belgium Credit: EPA