As Russia wages war in Ukraine and Iran maintains its hold on the Strait of Hormuz, Europe is getting a reality check about how energy can be weaponized—and now it should be “united” in addressing it, said Stavros Papastavrou, Greece’s minister of environment and energy.
Papastavrou spoke at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Forum on Wednesday, explaining that today’s crises have jolted Europe into a sense of “energy realism.”
Now, it is looking to become more resilient. And for Michael Damianos, Cyprus’s minister of energy, commerce, and industry, “becoming more resilient means being a bit more diversified.”
Cyprus currently holds the presidency of the Council of the EU, and Damianos explained that in diversifying, the EU needs to “develop [its] own internal sources of energy,” which “can … include fossil fuels as well.” Papastavrou agreed, arguing that Europe needs to develop “all” domestic resources “in order to be able to have our energy independence.”
While Europe maintains several ambitious renewable energy targets, Papastavrou argued that European leaders are realizing from this crisis that these goals, while “noble,” are based on “morality” and “did not take into account the competitiveness of the economy.”
