As Russia cuts natural gas supply to Europe, many EU countries such as Germany and Austria are forced to go back to coal power. The German government is also planning an additional credit line of €15 billion to secure gas for the winter. Amid the gas squeeze, European green energy transition plans have been put on the back burner. “It’s a sort of arm-wrestling in which Putin has the longer arm for now,” Germany’s Economy Minister Robert Habeck, a member of the environmentalist Green Party, stated. “But that doesn’t mean that we can’t attain a stronger arm with effort.” Europe’s largest economy still depends on Russia for 35% of its natural gas needs.
In Austria, state-owned electricity provider Verbund AG has been ordered to prepare its mothballed Mellach power plant for operation. The coal power plant, which is located 200 km to the south of Vienna, was closed in 2020.
