Eight EU countries have advocated the use of natural gas and support for investment in natural gas as part of the energy transition to lead Europe to carbon neutrality by 2050, according to Belga Press Agency.
Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia sent a two-page text to the European Commission and the Council to that effect.
The European Investment Bank has decided to stop financing any new fossil fuel projects, including gas, from 2022 onwards.
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The EU itself has not made a decision in its regulation on green investments. In the discussions aimed at establishing a classification of investments according to their contribution to the move away fossil fuels, the place of gas has not been settled yet, though it has not been explicitly excluded from the regulation.
The eight countries in question consider natural gas to be "an important source of back-up and balance," allowing time to develop renewable energies and to adapt the electricity grid.
"It is essential to maintain EU support and financial assistance for the development of gas infrastructure through a favourable framework, structural funds and investment loans," they argued, as there is otherwise a risk, in their view, that the cost of the transition and energy prices for consumers would soar.
The Brussels Times
