The European Commission has released its REPowerEU plan to reduce EU dependency on Russian gas by 2/3 in 2022 and to make the regional bloc independent from Russian fossil fuels before 2030.
The EU will seek to diversify its gas supply, increasing LNG and gas pipeline imports from non-Russian suppliers. Specifically, gas and LNG from countries like the United States and Qatar could replace 60 bcm of natural gas of 155 bcm/year imported by Europe from Russia. EU countries will also develop biomethane and renewable hydrogen production and import by 2030. New wind and solar projects could reduce 20 bcm of Russian gas imports in 2022; tripling wind and solar capacity to 480 GW of wind and 420 GW of solar by 2030 could even replace 170 bcm/year of natural gas in 2030. The full implementation of the Fit for 55 proposal could reduce the EU's gas consumption by 30% (around 100 bcm) by 2030 and measures from the REPowerEU plan could remove at least 155 bcm of gas consumption, i.e., the volume imported from Russia in 2021, with a 2/3 cut before the end of 2022. In addition, the European Commission has authorised countries to tax energy companies' profits from high gas prices to offset higher energy bills and will propose new regulation forcing EU countries to fill gas storage to 90% by 1 October each year.
The EU imports 90% of its gas consumption, with Russia providing around 45% of those imports, in varying levels across Member States. Russia also accounts for around 25% of oil imports and 45% of coal imports.