Athens Energy Dialogues: The Impact of Energy from the War in Ukraine

The impact of the energy from the war in Ukraine was focused on the discussion held in the context of the 10th Athens Energy Dialogues conference, which continues its work for a second day.

In this section with moderator Dr. Costas Andriosopoulos, Professor of Energy Economics at Audencia Business School, Professor of Energy Economics and Business Research at NTUA, Pantelis Kapros spoke of an explosive situation in Europe, combining the sharp rise in prices and the threat of energy security, energy at European level.

According to him, Europe’s dependence is wide and critical and can not continue, while there is a need to reduce the role of gas and this is the meaning of Repower Europe, which has already begun and is a capital challenge.

“The horizon for change is until 2030, we can not be dependent on gas. Countries will have to review their national plans, they will have to immediately change their energy mix and type of investment,” he said.

For his part, EBRD Europe Director and Head of Energy Grzegorz Zielinski said there was money to invest in energy and find alternative sources, but raised two issues, such as the problem of project licensing and procurement. armaments.

In the same context, Dr. Theodoros Tsakiris, Associate Professor for Energy Policy and Geopolitics at the University of Nicosia, stressed that the repower provides new funds of only 20 billion euros while investments for energy security do not exceed 1.5 to 2 billion euros and for the diversification of sources of gas supply are around 10 billion. He said, however, that the fact that the EU did not want to extract gas on its territory or produce the mineral raw materials needed to equip RES was an obstacle to Europe’s energy autonomy.