Ongoing geopolitical tensions between Russia and both Ukraine and NATO placed the issue of energy security front and center during the recent EU-US Energy Council meeting.
The same was true during the Council’s meeting in 2014 following Russia’s invasion of Crimea and the beginning of armed conflict in eastern Ukraine. While the response then was to diversify gas import routes to Europe, there are now better options in Europe’s energy toolbox that can effectively increase countries’ resilience. Further, there is increasing international consensus around the need to shift to net-zero emissions, and growing recognition of the socioeconomic and security risks presented by climate change.
Prioritising energy efficiency and accelerated clean energy deployment represents a transatlantic strategy that can yield a double dividend: boosting energy security for the European Union (EU) and Ukraine and delivering on the shared climate security agenda. Going forward, the EU and United States (US) have an opportunity to:
- Continue to demonstrate transatlantic solidarity in tackling the current crisis; and
- Show that the energy security equation has changed and will continue to change by placing the accelerated deployment of energy efficiency and clean energy at the center of transatlantic cooperation.
Read the briefing in full here.
