A 10-point plan to reduce the European Union’s dependence on Russian natural gas. International Energy Agency

Europe’s dependence on natural gas imported from Russia has been brought into sharp relief by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In 2021, the European Union imported an average of more than 380 million cubic meters per day of gas by pipeline from Russia, or about 140 billion cubic meters (bcm) for the year as a whole. Thus, the Plan’s set of measures, covering the gas supply, electricity system and end-use sectors, could result in the EU’s annual demand on Russian gas imports falling by more than 50 bcm in one year. These figures take into account the need for additional recharging of European gas storage facilities in 2022 after low Russian supplies helped drive these storage levels to unusually low levels. The 10-Point Plan is consistent with the EU’s climate ambitions and the European Green Deal and also points towards the results achieved in the IEA 2050 Net Zero Emissions Roadmap, in which the EU completely phases out need to import Russian gas before 2030.