Russia’s war on Ukraine has sparked many extraordinary developments, among them the sanctions unleashed by the west on Moscow, which have been far more extensive and more rapidly mobilised than anyone could have been expected.
Another is the changes it is bringing about in the energy policies of many European countries.
Chief among them is Germany – which has indicated it may extend the lives of its nuclear power plants and keep coal-fired power plants online for longer than anticipated.
The news comes as Europe’s biggest economy finally acknowledges it needs to wean itself off cheap Russian gas.
Robert Habeck, Germany’s economy minister, told Deutschlandfunk radio how the government would react to Russia suspending gas exports: “We are prepared for that. I can give the all-clear for the current winter and summer.
“For the next winter, we would take further measures.
“We are also taking precautions for the worst case, which has not happened yet because the Russians are delivering.”
Mr Habeck went on to say that, in a worst-case scenario, Germany could keep “coal-fired power plants in reserve, maybe even keep them running”.
These are extraordinary comments for two reasons. The first is that Mr Habeck, Germany’s vice-chancellor, is a member of the country’s Green Party – a party whose origins lie in Germany’s anti-nuclear and peace movements of the 1960s and early 1970s and whose very identity is tied up with phasing out nuclear power.
The second is that a policy switch of the kind he describes marks a massive reverse of Germany’s energy policies of the last decade – policies that, with the benefit of hindsight, have made the country far more dependent on Russian gas and are likely to have emboldened Russian president Vladimir Putin in his belief that he could act…
Source : skynews
