Should we feel anxious about Europe’s energy

Transcript:Should we feel anxious about Europe’s energy:
Should we feel anxious about Europe’s energy dependency? Where Does Europe Get It’s Energy From Today? Europe consumes 20% of the worlds energy, but is only able to supply about half of what it needs. As a result the EU spends €350 billion per annum importing energy supplies. Although the EU has set itself a target of reducing this by 20%, many estimate that energy needs will rise by 3% which will make this very difficult to meet. Europe imports most of its energy imports from Russia, Algeria and Norway, with about half of the EU’s gas coming from Russia via a pipeline through the Ukraine. Many people have become uncomfortable with how dependant the EU is on Russia and Algeria. NATO and the EU have had difficult relations with Russia and some are concerned that Algeria is not a stable enough state to be reliant upon. If, for example, the president of Russia were to decide to reduce supplies and force the price of gas up, there would be very little the EU could do and it could quickly make life very difficult for many people in the EU. Algeria is a close ally of Russia’s, buying large amounts of military supplies from them, and until 2011 was ruled under a state of emergency. In 2014 several opposition parties boycotted the national elections in Algeria, claiming that decisions about who would be president were made by “le pouvoir” (the power) – the military. Should we feel anxious about Europe’s energy dependency? The 1973 Oil Price Crisis: On Yom Kippur 1973 Israel was invaded by several of her surrounding Arab states. Other nations quickly became involved in this with Russia supporting Egypt and the Arab states, and the West (particularly America and The Netherlands) supporting Israel. OPEC was angry at Western intervention, and therefore reduced production of oil and introduced a boycott of oil sales to America and The Netherlands, resulting in a significant and growing increase in the oil price. In the short term this led to emergency measures such a speed limits on British motorways being reduced to 50 mph, and Denmark placing similar limitations on travel. In the medium term countries planned to try and diversify their sources of energy, looking to develop renewable sources of energy that would reduce their energy dependency. However, as the price of oil dropped again political commitment to such programmes appeared