Politics.co.uk: How a Cold War with Russia could save the environment

European politicians are getting lots of practice at sticking two fingers up at Russia. Now the IPPR thinktank has come up with an innovative new way of hitting the Kremlin where it really hurts: by stripping away the EU's reliance on Russian gas.

It sounds far-fetched. Over half of Europe's energy is now imported, after all, including two-thirds of its gas. All but four of the EU's 28 member states import gas from Russia, while six of them rely on Moscow's goodwill for 100% of their gas. Could the European Union really find a way of ending its reliance on its eastern pipelines?

"It is both the cheapest means of cutting carbon output, and essential for improving European energy security," says Joss Garman, the author of IPPR's report on energy security published this week. He's talking about the need for the EU setting an energy efficiency target for 2030. Doing so, Garman believes, would save 500 billion euros over the next 15 years. It would more than pay for the extra costs of switching to renewable sources of energy. And it would cut Europe's gas dependency by a third - the exact proportion of the EU's demand met by imports from Russia.  MORE