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The European Union's energy mix

The Graphic Truth: The European Union's energy mix

Since Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year, the European Union has upped its commitments to ditch dirty energy sources, in large part to reduce its reliance on Russian oil and natural gas, and dilute Moscow’s leverage over European geopolitics. But even before the war, EU countries had been working towards diversifying their energy portfolios to meet their ambitious climate goals. In recent years, nuclear power and renewable energy sources have been more widely adopted throughout the bloc, while fossil fuel consumption has dipped. We compare the EU’s energy mix in 2000 and 2020.

Ari Winkleman

The Graphic Truth: European reliance on Russian gas

Russia’s increasingly aggressive stance against Ukraine has again highlighted Europe’s reliance on Russian gas imports. But recent events have also revealed how much Russia’s economy depends on its European consumers. While a lot of Russian natural gas used to traverse Ukrainian territory on its way to the EU, the Center for Strategic and International Studies says that level was slashed by 70% between 1998 and 2021 as Moscow sought to increase its leverage over Kyiv. We take a look at some major pipeline import routes from Russia to the EU from 2015-2021.

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