The European Union is trying to reduce its overall fossil fuel imports by a half by 2050 under a new strategy presented in Moscow on Tuesday.Ummm... That's 39 years. That's the length of time from the turn of the century to the invasion of Poland and the start of the Second World War. 39 years ago platform shoes were just coming in among the trendy set. Gas cost 23.9 cents a gallon unless you ran into a price war, when you might get it for 17.9 cents a gallon or less. I tanked up at 13.9 once...
The strategy for the EU to decrease its greenhouse gas emissions to "a mere 20 percent of 1990 levels" by 2050 is set out by the Road Map to a Carbon Neutral Economy, The Moscow Times reported on Friday.
And keep in mind that they're gonna shut down their nuke plants because Europa is so earthquake-prone...
The halving of oil and gas imports would save some 400 billion euros -- about 3 percent of today's GDP -- on its bill for foreign oil and gas, the report claims.
The policy calls for saving 175 billion to 320 billion euros in fuel costs and slashing energy consumption to 70 percent of 2005 levels.
"The EU plans to replace fossil fuel with electricity for transportation and heating," said Alexander Yeremin, an oil and gas analyst.
In a worst-case scenario, Russia could switch from European to Asian oil markets, but fully retain the European market for natural gas thanks to the role it plays in electricity generation, he said.
The presentation comes ahead of a visit to Moscow by Timo Makela, the director of international affairs at the EU environment commission, on May 18-20.
Europe consumes the vast majority of Russia's gas exports and more than half of its oil. Russia supplied 29.7 percent of Europe's crude oil imports (5.86 billion barrels worth some $87 billion) in 2010, according to the EU Energy Commission. It supplied about 30 percent of Europe's gas in 2008.