Ecology

The ongoing suffering of the civilian population in Ukraine has led to calls for the EU, or individual Member States, to stop imports of Russian gas. The economic consequences of such a step would be very severe in the short run. But there is another way, more gradual, which would minimise economic disruptions. The EU should simply impose a special import tariff on Russian gas. Repost courtesy of EUIdeas.

With the EU’s ongoing purchase of Russian energy resources, the regime that is responsible for the current barbaric war in Ukraine is guaranteed a constant cash flow.  Proponents of an embargo want to maximise the economic and financial pressure on Putin and withdraw financing from the Russian war machine.

The primary goal must be to stop the war of aggression on Ukraine launched by Russia on 24 February 2022. The sanctions of EU and NATO countries are currently in contrast to the dependence on Russian raw material and energy supplies. Hundreds of millions of euros flow from Germany to Russia every day, counteracting the effect of the sanctions. This should now be an incentive to reassess the costs of more radical fossil fuel exit scenarios in the shortest possible time under crisis conditions.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022 brought home what most of us knew already but had assigned secondary importance to: renewable energy properly deployed is not only good for the environment and human health, it is also good for people’s pockets and their freedom.

The inability to adequately sanction the criminal invasion of Ukraine by Russian President Putin painfully demonstrates Europe’s massive dependencies from fossil fuel imports. Phasing out fossil fuels is no longer “just” about fighting the climate crisis, but also a precondition for Europe’s energy sovereignty and price stability.

On February 24, Russia started the war in Ukraine. Nothing will be the same again. Russia's brutal attack made the ongoing conflict around energy resources all the more obvious. This article analyses what options Poland has to break its energy dependence on Russia.

The introduction of an oil embargo could significantly increase economic pressure on Russia. While the effect of an embargo on Russian military capabilities over the coming months would be minimal, it is unclear at present how long the war will last and whether it will spread beyond Ukraine. In the worst case, the West is currently financing a future war against itself.

Environmental and climate crises are not gender neutral. They disproportionately affect people already facing multiple forms of discrimination. If feminist environmental policy is to extend beyond the effects on women, it needs to combine gender and ecological expertise. This dossier features a selection of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung's contributions over recent decades to international debates on environmental and gender justice. To combat both discriminatory power relations and resource destruction, the foundation's international offices have launched environmental projects that pursue these cross-cutting policies.