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List eurokomisárke pre zmenu klímy Connie Hedegaard
Bratislava, 8. 4. 2014
Dear Commissioner Hedegaard,
allow us to bring to your attention an important opportunity for European climate goals brought by recent annexation of Crimea by Russia.
Despite a lot of "sanctions" rhetoric, given our (EU) dependency on Russian natural gas and oil and very high levels of dependency of many member states on Russia´s energy imports, it does not appear very productive approach. The same limited influence can be expected from proposals to increase EU import of CNG from current shale gas surpluses in the U.S.: questionable is both volume, price and long term availability of that gas. And, of course, growing use of shale gas would have very negative climate consequences.
It appears that absolutely best and the only sustainable strategy to deal with Russia is to decrease imports of natural gas and oil to both EU and Ukraine (Ukraine is the second largest importer of Russian NG after Germany, followed by Turkey). While it is very difficult and slow to change member states investment priorities, to influence allocations of EU´s assistance to Ukraine may be much easier process.
EU has well over 100 billion euros trade deficit with Russia, 75 % of our import are oil and gas. This huge trade deficit helps to finance, among other things, Russian military threatening EU´s neighbors.
Our practical proposal to you is this one: Please, propose to commissioner Stefan Fule and any other relevant colleagues an emergency assistance program for Ukraine focusing on energy conservation in buildings ("Bomb Ukraine - with mineral wool" may sound too militaristic, but captures the proposal).
By such win-win-win-win approach, EU could achieve multiple goals:
- Geopolitical - provide real, visible support to citizen – not oligarchs - of Ukraine and reduce Ukraine´s need to import natural gas used for heating of Ukrainian households and buildings. (Most of buildings in UA are in dilapidated conditions with extremely poor thermal insulation - in very harsh climate compared to most of EU),
- Social - saving on energy bills would measurably and significantly improve social situation of struggling Ukrainian families (with currency devaluation social conditions in UA are deteriorating rapidly and with already announced 50 % increase in NG prices in near future, worsening social situation may undermine pre-European efforts and determination of Ukrainian people,
- Economic - lessening "money drain" paid to Russia for natural gas would improve Ukrainian trade balance and economic health of the country,
- and, of course, Climate - Ukraine´s per capita CO2 emissions are almost as high as EU average despite much lower GDP per capita. Structure of Ukrainian economy is only part of the reason – equally if not more important are poorly insulated houses, administrative and industrial buildings.
Indeed what we wrote about EU assistance to Ukraine should apply also to EU member states - in particular those importing 100 % or close to 100 % of their NG from Russia, e. g. Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Finland - representing population of around 110 million people. Much more money channeled via EU funds to member states should be re-directed towards energy conservation, instead of fueling more and more energy intensive, climate destructive and unsustainable infrastructure projects such as building of motorways.
We do understand, that to influence budgets and climate destructive priorities of member states is very far of your / Commission´s reach. But to formally propose “Bomb Ukraine with mineral wool" idea to commissioner Fule is something you can do and possibly achieve result.
Such program could be administered easily, swiftly and transparently for instance using Community Driven Development approach which is commonly used by the World Bank. It also could, at least partly, use existing member states production capacities (of mineral wool, styrofoam, energy saving windows etc.).
We hope this proposal attracts your attention and are looking forward to assist you in making it reality,
Yours sincerely,
Prof. Dr. Mikuláš Huba, PhD.
Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and Environment
National Council of the Slovak Republic
Dr. Juraj Mesík
Society for Sustainable Living in the Slovak Republic
Ms Connie Hedegaard
Member of the European Commission
DG Climate Action
B-1049 Brussels
Belgium