Every cloud has a silver lining – is the title of the next talk at Il-Hagar Museum in Victoria, when Joseph Ellis will discuss how Europe has faced up to the energy challenge.
Dr Ellis will look at whether these efforts to avoid an energy crisis have been at the expense of commitments to phase out CO2 emissions.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, Europe was spending about a billion euro daily in fuel imports from Russia. Europe’s largest economy, Germany, at the end of 2021 imported 55% of its gas from Russia. And Germany was obviously not the only European country to rely on cheap Russian energy for its industry and to warm homes and offices.
Over the years Russia built up foreign reserves in anticipation of western sanctions and it must moreover have calculated that Europe’s dependence on its energy exports would blunt the reach of western sanctions against its rogue behaviour.
Dr Ellis said that, “we now know that this was a colossal miscalculation! Western countries, and especially Europe, could not continue to bankroll Russia’s war machine and have imposed sanctions of unprecedented depth and breadth against Russia.”
He went on to say that several pundits and propagandists anticipated power outages but, after a huge spike, gas prices have gone back down. Gas reserves are actually higher than a year ago – and Russian revenues from energy exports have suffered a lot.
The talk forms part of the events and celebrations marking the museum’s 10th anniversary this year.
The talk is on Saturday, the 18th of February, starting at 11am.
Attendance is free, but booking a seat for this talk in English on events@heartofgozo.org.mt [1] is recommended.
It could also be an opportunity to view the Donations & Bequests exhibition [2] set up for the anniversary.
The museum is located in St George’s Square, Victoria, Gozo, open 9-5 daily, admission is free of charge.