Central and eastern
European countries
are lobbying for
new natural gas
infrastructure.
At the end of May,
eight EU countries
(Lithuania,
Poland,
Czech Republic,
Slovakia,
Hungary,
Romania,
Bulgaria,
Greece)
began lobbying
to retain EU funds
for new natural
gas projects.
They say that
only using more
natural gas
will allow coal
to be phased out.
Environmental groups
are now worried that
Europe's Green Deal
will be watered down,
with one fossil fuel,
natural gas,
replacing another,
fossil fuel, coal.
Climate activists
such as
Marcus Trilling,
from the Climate
Action Network,
said these are
"investment decisions
which are shaping
the infrastructure,
the economy of the
decades to come.
If I am now investing
in fossil gas, then I am
locking in emissions
in those decades
to come."
Romanian Liberal Member
of the European Parliament
(MEP) Dragoș Tudorache
said investing in natural gas
infrastructure is not
a waste of money.
He said:
"Moving straight away
from coal to something
that is completely fossil fuel
independent is impossible
if you don't transit through
something.
And that transition,
unless other technology
becomes available,
is natural gas."
Belgian Green MEP
Philippe Lamberts said:
"We should not kill
the airline industry,
or the automotive industry
but we have to force them
into transforming.
So we do not want
that these companies
go bankrupt, but if
they need public support,
the condition should be
a deep transformation
of their business model.
And in the case
of the airlines industry,
it means also shrinking."