“You can see how this will encourage the world to go for green solutions wherever possible, but clearly there is going to be a transitional period, we’re going to have to look for supply, we’re going to have to look for alternative supply,” he said.
Johnson is under pressure domestically from his own conservative MPs to roll back some net zero commitments and overturn a fracking ban to help ease domestic energy prices for families.
He warned Europe could not simply close down use of oil and gas overnight – even from Russia – and while just 3 per cent of UK gas demand was fulfilled by shipments of Russian gas, other countries were much more dependent.
In a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Johnson said the western nations were increasingly united in the mood that it had to move away from Russian gas and oil, and it needed to make sure there was substitute supply.
Although sanctions on Russia have so far avoided directly targeting its oil and gas exports because of concerns about the impact on their own economies, traders have been shunning Russian commodities, partly in case the West does start to directly target oil and gas exports.
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Trudeau, who announced Canada would impose sanctions on 10 Russian individuals including current and former government officials and oligarchs, said there was an ongoing shift in Europe and elsewhere “to understand that Russia is no longer a reliable partner”.
He said Canada imports “negligible” amounts of Russian oil, which it has banned, but its self-sustainability was a contrast to European countries.
Rutte said he agreed Europe could not switch off Russian energy overnight, saying it needed to be a “step-by-step process”.
“My plea is to do this diligently, and not overnight, and making sure that we speed up the programs of all of our countries to decarbonise, to green our economies. It makes it more important to do that,” he said.
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Boris says West needs short-term pass on emissions to wean off Russian oil and gas
Source: Philippines Alive
