“This winter will be very, very difficult in Europe,” warned IEA director Fatih Birol at an energy forum in Sydney on Tuesday. The energy supply is a big concern. “This can have serious effects on the world economy,” said the head of the interest group of western industrialized countries.
According to Birol, the world has never experienced “such a profound and complex energy crisis”. The IEA director fears that “we may not have seen the worst”.
Concerns of an energy crisis have recently increased after Russia closed the important Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline for routine maintenance work. Since Monday morning, no gas has flowed through the more than 1,200-kilometer pipeline to Germany. There is a fear that gas could no longer flow through the pipeline to Germany in the long term.
With a view to increasing the expansion of renewable energies in order to reduce dependence on Russian gas, Birol referred to the importance of China. The People’s Republic controls about 80 percent of the global supply chain for solar energy. According to the IEA Director, this proportion is likely to increase even more in the coming years.
Source: Nachrichten
