Format: Webinar
Date: 4 May 2023, 11:00 – 12:00

Breaking free from fossil gas: a new path to a climate-neutral Europe

#Fossil gas phase-down

Illustration by Agora Energiewende

Event Recording

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With the REPowerEU plan, the EU has set the goal of eliminating its dependence on Russian fossil fuel imports well before 2030, signalling the end of deceptively cheap pipeline gas supplies from Russia. Therefore, the dependency on liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports increased globally and fossil gas supplies are likely to remain structurally more costly for the decades to come.

Despite REPowerEU’s focus on the need to reduce fossil-gas consumption and diversify fossil-gas supplies in the 2030 perspective, the EU has not gone as far as to explicitly draw a pathway out of fossil gas. Alternatives to fossil gas such as biomethane and renewable hydrogen are also being strongly supported in the very short term, while no impact assessment has been carried out to assess the sustainability and trade-offs of such a strategy.

In the context of the ongoing legislative processes on gas-market legislation and ahead of upcoming debates on the EU's 2040 climate ambitions, there is a growing urgency to make sure no investments are made into future technological lock-ins which could compromise the achievement of the climate targets. A fundamental rethinking of the projected role of fossil gas as a "bridge fuel" to a clean economy is imperative.

This one-hour webinar presented the key findings from a new report by Agora Energiewende, outlining a vision for a complete fossil gas phase-out pathway for the EU, covering the energy, buildings and industry sectors based on modelling work carried out by Artelys, TEP Energy and Wuppertal Institute. We discussed the key policy implications for the EU’s gas-related policy initiatives as well as initiated a conversation for the upcoming 2040 climate targets debate.

PRESENTATION
You can find the presentation in the download section below.

RECORDING
The recording can be found above.