“Renewable energy is not about tackling climate change, it’s about economic growth and affordable and low energy prices,” Austrian State Secretary of Energy Elizabeth Zehetner told POLITICO on the sidelines of the event. Zehetner stressed however that Europeans wouldn’t be “blackmailed” by the U.S.
Her comments reflect that independently of the U.S., Europe has itself moved away from the climate fervor that dominated Brussels policymaking in the first part of this decade. Still, despite some backsliding on green rules, the EU remains fundamentally in favor of strong policies to tackle climate change.
Downplaying and dealmaking
But officials said collaboration remained possible, and that European countries could work with the U.S. commercially to fill gaps in Europe’s energy mix, highlighting growing imports of U.S. liquified natural gas and collaborations on nuclear power.
Britain’s approach is to “find common ground with as many countries as possible,” U.K. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told POLITICO. “For example, [on] nuclear, we found common ground with the U.S., and that’s really important.”
Finnish Energy and Climate Minister Sari Multala said countries should “build on those things we have in common,” saying collaboration with the U.S. “would be possible.”
Greece’s Deputy Energy Minister Nikos Tsafos, also present at the conference, said a growing Greek push to transit U.S. LNG from its ports into neighboring countries was “really important in bringing down gas prices” and that it was just one prong in a broader diversification strategy that includes renewables. He rejected EU concerns that the U.S. could weaponize the gas flows.