There can be life without Russian gas
Chile offers an example in weaning off a key energy supply source. It won't be cost-free but the price may be worth paying if the reward is freedom for Ukraine from Russian oppression and freedom for Europe from Russian energy blackmail.
Andrés Velasco and Marcelo Tokman
LONDON/SANTIAGO – IN mid-2007, while serving as ministers in Chile’s government, we received the kind of telephone call that every German politician and businessperson now dreads. We were told that natural-gas imports from neighbouring Argentina, Chile’s only supplier, would be cut off overnight. Like Germany today, Chile was overwhelmingly dependent on imported gas for generating electricity, fueling industrial plants, and heating homes. The shock therefore could have been devastating; but, thanks to a battery of emergency measures, Chile pulled through.
The episode holds useful lessons for Germany and other European countries that may soon lose access to Russian gas – either because they decide to stop subsidising Russian aggression or because the Kremlin decides to send its gas elsewhere.
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