DIW study shows savings potential
G7 could live without Russian gas as early as 2025
05/25/2022, 8:48 p.m
How can dependence on Russian gas be reduced – this is the question that has occupied Germany since the outbreak of war in Ukraine. A study now shows that all G7 countries could save so much gas by 2025 that deliveries from Russia would no longer be necessary.
According to a study, the G7 countries could save more gas by 2025 than Russia exports. As the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” reported with reference to the study commissioned by Greenpeace by the German Institute for Economic Research, the seven major industrialized countries could reduce their gas requirements by 18 percent by 2025.
That would correspond to 264 billion cubic meters of gas – and would therefore be more than the 250 billion cubic meters that Russia exports to the countries by pipeline or as liquefied natural gas. The G7 countries could therefore save more gas than Russia exports. According to the study, the greatest savings potential lies in buildings.
According to the study, around 80 percent of all savings could be achieved there through the use of heat pumps, optimized heating systems, building renovation and a room temperature reduction of one degree. A lot can also be saved in industry and in power generation, but that takes more time, the newspaper reported from the study. Above all, the expansion of renewable energies urgently needs to be accelerated.
Since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, ways and possibilities have been sought to become independent of Russian energy supplies. For example, Germany wants to replace Russian gas with liquefied natural gas from Qatar and Italy wants to buy more gas from Algeria. The European Union wants to be independent of fossil fuels from Russia by 2030 at the latest.