Title: How Dependent Is Germany On Russian Gas?
Headings: How Dependent Is Germany On Russian Gas?
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How Dependent Is Germany On Russian Gas?

Content: But there is reason to believe that the Russian proportion will go up. Germany is the world’s biggest natural gas importer, having to bring 92% of the gas it consumes in from outside the country. The few gas fields that Germany has will likely be completely depleted within the next decade
But looking only at gas gives a distorted impression of Germany’s energy mix, because gas accounts for only around 23% of Germany’s primary energy use. Germany also gets its energy from nuclear, renewables, coal and oil – little of which comes from Russia. Germany gets its nuclear and coal energy domestically. But Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to phase out both of those energy sources within the next decade. The country has an ambitious renewable energy expansion program in place called the Energiewende which is designed to replace those energy sources with solar and wind. But sceptics say it is more likely to be replaced by Russian gas – hence the economic imperative of the new Nord Stream II pipeline which Trump criticised at the NATO summit. On Tuesday diplomats from Germany, the EU, Ukraine and Russia met in Berlin to try to bridge the political divides for this project. But the underlying economic reality is more stark.