Without Russian gas, Europe burns more coal

Dutch Energy and Environment Minister Rob Jetten announced on Monday that his government had "

".

This means, he said, that "

".

The Netherlands had managed to reduce the share of coal as a source of electricity production from 40% in 2015 to 10% in 2020, according to the International Energy Agency.

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On Sunday, Germany announced a return to coal to run its power plants.

Its Ministry of Economy and Climate assures that it maintains its objective of completely abandoning coal in 2030. This deadline is among the key points of the coalition contract negotiated last year between the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz and his liberal and ecological partners.

Russian giant Gazprom cut gas supplies to Germany last week, citing technical reasons, just as Chancellor Scholz was visiting kyiv.

The Netherlands, for their part, were notified in May by Gazprom of a suspension of deliveries.

The supplier GasTerra refused to pay in rubles as demanded by Moscow.

While Russian hydrocarbon deliveries are dwindling towards Europe, it is confirmed that they are increasing towards China.

Russian oil imports by Beijing jumped 55% in May, year on year, according to the latest official statistics.

Russia has thus supplanted, at least temporarily, Saudi Arabia as the first supplier of black gold to the Middle Kingdom.