Part 5: A Crisis Reshapes the Energy Transition

This is the fifth episode of a five-part series exploring the European energy crisis in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. If you haven’t listened to the first four episodes, we recommend you start there. In March of 2022, European officials unveiled a plan to push their energy transition much further, much faster – and rid their dependence on Russian fossil fuels. REPowerEU was ambitious, but it raised lots of questions about whether it would lock Europe into new dependencies. In this episode, we take a step back and ask: what are the consequences of the energy crisis for the entire European region? And how might it influence other parts of the world? First, we explore the push to supercharge wind and solar – and what it says about the benefits and limits of what they can do. Then, we discuss the abrupt shift in where Europe gets the fossil fuels it uses today – and the vision to reuse gas infrastructure for hydrogen. Finally, we end with a conversation about how Europe’s response influenced other regions, particularly developing countries.