Several European officials said on Monday that the war in Ukraine, which has led to increased use of coal and liquefied natural gas, will not change the EU’s climate plans, in the context of negotiations ahead of the COP27 meeting in Montreal, reports AFP.

Environment ministers from the 27 member states met on Monday to decide on a single negotiating mandate for the EU at the COP27 meeting in Montreal, at a time when the drastic reduction in Russian natural gas supplies has forced the continent to increase significantly the liquefied natural gas imports and to invest in the construction of new gas infrastructure projects (such as terminals for liquefied gas imports), as well as to use more coal, according to Agerpres.

“A certain flexibility is needed in the short term: certain countries have increased their consumption of coal and gas, it is something absolutely temporary and for reasons related to energy security,” pleaded the Spanish Minister of Energy, Teresa Ribera, upon her arrival at the Luxembourg meeting. At the same time, “we are accelerating our conversion towards a decarbonized Europe, precisely to increase our security and stability,” reducing the EU’s dependence on hydrocarbon imports, added Teresa Ribera.

“The fact that a certain number of states have to resort, temporarily, to coal puts us on a bad annual trajectory in terms of emissions in the EU,” acknowledged the French Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu. However, the decisions already taken by the Europeans (scheduled phase-out of coal, end of sales of cars equipped with internal combustion engines in 2035), “are signals that allow us not to deviate from the trajectory,” foreseen for 2030 and 2050, the official said.

“There is a big misunderstanding: even though we consume more coal today, the conclusion we draw from the war is that we need to accelerate the energy transition. In the end, we will reduce our greenhouse gas emissions even faster. For geostrategic reasons, this transition must be accelerated to ensure our energy sovereignty, and this will only happen through the expansion of renewable energies,” concluded the vice-president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans.

In the context of the decrease in Russian natural gas supplies and the emergence of the risk of shortage in Europe, several countries announced in the spring temporary measures in favor of coal consumption, such as Germany, Austria, Italy and the Netherlands.