Europe’s raw material resources are not sufficiently abundant for it to be unequivocally stated that Europe is independent in terms of raw materials and therefore energy. On the contrary, limited extraction deposits and the need for fossil fuels from the rest of the world means that dependence on imports is steadily increasing and has increased since the early 1990s from 50% to 58% today.
The high sensitivity to raw material importability is particularly evident in situations of external supply shortages. This is the situation we are currently facing, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the imposition of sanctions on Russia by the European Union and raw material blackmail by Russia causing anxiety and uncertainty and placing the European energy market in crisis. Interrupted supplies, particularly of natural gas, mean that in those countries that depend on Russian gas and do not replenish their stocks sufficiently during the summer, reserves of this commodity may be depleted at the height of the heating season, and some sectors of the economy, especially selected industries, will also be affected by its shortage. Russia is using the supply of raw materials to Europe as a bargaining chip in the face of the war in Ukraine, triggering the need for a Community-wide and national response to the crisis.
This means that the countries of Europe, including Poland, must make every effort to ensure that there is no shortage of energy and raw materials needed by the economy and industry, as well as by households, in the coming autumn and winter. Preparing contingency plans, filling up gas storage facilities, replacing Russian resources with supplies from other parts of the world, and protecting the public against energy price rises are just some of the measures needed to overcome the impending energy crisis. It is also a good time to revise decarbonisation plans and, more specifically, to accelerate the timing of their implementation, i.e. to accelerate the development of zero-carbon energy sources, so that Europe can become energy-independent and produce energy cheaply without external shocks affecting its own market. The public and the economy are increasingly aware of the relevance and seriousness of the situation in the area of both energy security and climate. In order to achieve the set climate goals of zero-carbon by 2050, it is imperative to increase investments in decarbonisation, zero-carbon and energy efficiency in the current decade.
Authors: Krzysztof Bocian, Kamil Laskowski i Wojciech Lewandowski
