If the European Union wants to reach energy sovereignty, it should accelerate renewable energy and heat pumps rather than locking itself into new gas imports, according to a new report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).
The think tank contends that expanding wind, solar power and heat pumps is the most effective long-term answer, estimating that in 2024, these technologies displaced 8.8 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) – roughly equivalent to two-thirds of the EU's imports of Qatari LNG that year.
According to the study, if the bloc meets its existing deployment targets over the next five years, gas demand could fall by around 25 percent by 2030, saving twice the volume of LNG Europe could potentially import from Qatar.
"IEEFA estimates that achieving the EU’s targets of installing at least 4 million heat pumps, 75GW of solar and 22GW of wind annually over the next five years could cut gas demand by around a quarter by the end of 2030," the authors write.
They argue that while the EU successfully reduced its dependence on Russian pipeline gas after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, it has replaced one vulnerability with another by sharply increasing imports of LNG, mainly from the United States and Qatar.
