The EU must maintain course in transitioning away from fossil fuels, EU energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen told an informal meeting of EU energy ministers, which also discussed plans to boost domestic oil and gas production to strengthen the bloc's energy security.
Jorgensen said the EU needs to accelerate and intensify efforts to move away from fossil fuels, and while security of supply concerns can be addressed, the climate crisis will not disappear, he said.
The bloc also needs to stay on course with its methane regulation, Jorgensen added. "Although we are also committed to making sure that the implementation will be as pragmatic as possible," he said.
"We have gas reserves. We just need to make sure that we use those gas reserves in the next few decades," Cypriot energy minister Michael Damianos said. Hosting the meeting in Lefkosia, Cyprus, Damianos added that natural gas is "greener" than anything else. "We do need fossil fuels," he said, even if European consumption will fall.
A document prepared for the meeting notes that indigenous gas resources can strategically complement the EU's long-term security and decarbonisation goals by contributing to diversification and resilience targets.
"We need more natural gas in Europe," Romanian secretary of state for energy Cristian-Silviu Busoi said, noting the role of gas in the transition, potentially even beyond 2050 if carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies become sufficiently mature. EU standards, including under the methane regulation, are definitely higher than those in north Africa, the Middle East and the Caspian region, Busoi said.
"Our main goal is how we can speed up the energy transition," Spanish ecological transition minister Sara Aagesen said. She highlighted Spain's favourable power price trend because of a greater share of renewables in the generation mix, with natural gas setting prices only 10pc of the time in 2026, compared with 75pc in 2018.
Spain, together with Austria, Germany, Italy and Portugal, is also waiting for common EU measures to establish a tax on windfall profits. Aagesen said the tax should include refineries exporting outside the EU.
