Marat Terterov for Bloomberg Adria on Europe’s Energy Transition Amid Geopolitical Shifts

The Brussels Energy Club Director discusses the challenges of decarbonization, gas supply diversification, and the impact of EU sanctions on energy markets.

In an exclusive interview with Bloomberg Adria, Dr Marat Terterov, Founder and Director of the Brussels Energy Club, and co-founder of the European Geopolitical Forum, assessed the prospects of energy transition in Europe within a complex geopolitical context.

In particular, he addressed the main challenges ahead, such as: decarbonization of transport, the need for an urgent diversification of energy (in particular gas) supply sources and adjusting the energy markets to geopolitical imperatives (mainly due to EU sanctions against Russia). Regarding the latter, Dr Terterov alluded to an older issue: “Can states control markets?”. While market actors (including suppliers and consumers) do not aim to support the Russian war in Ukraine, they don’t want to become collateral damage either.

Gas trading relations are usually very long-term. It’s therefore still to be seen how European gas market actors will react to Brussels' pressure to phase out Russian gas supply in the short term. Meanwhile, Russia has no interest in undermining the European energy transition, but it may be interested in maintaining a share of the European gas market, at least by the time it was able to fully redirect its exports towards the East (China, Pakistan).