Leopoldina statement: Germany can cope with a short-term suspension of Russian gas deliveries

From the point of view of scientists, a short-term stop in the supply of Russian gas would be manageable for the German economy.

"Bottlenecks could arise in the coming winter," says a statement published on Tuesday by the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in Halle.

However, there would be an opportunity to limit the negative impact and cushion the social impact by immediately implementing a package of measures.

The procurement of liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the world market by the EU is recommended as an immediate measure.

Increasing coal-fired power generation could also contribute to replacing natural gas.

Gas tanks would have to be filled up.

Burdens on citizens with low and middle incomes due to higher energy prices should be socially cushioned, and companies should be relieved of energy taxes.

More independence through climate neutrality?

According to the paper, medium-term measures include, for example, the procurement of a "robust reserve" of energy sources and the expansion of LNG landing capacities - the federal government recently announced that it would use the state development bank KfW to invest in a planned LNG terminal in Schleswig-Holstein to participate in Brunsbüttel.

So far there is no such terminal in Germany.

With regard to long-term measures, the Leopoldina statement states that the transformation to climate neutrality should be accelerated - above all through the expansion of renewable energies, infrastructure expansion, especially for the handling of hydrogen and hydrogen imports.

It was also said that the federal government had already initiated the first far-reaching decisions, such as the purchase of gas for 1.5 billion euros or a planned regulation for filling gas storage facilities.

In the current situation, it is also important not to question the planned phase-out of coal in 2030.

He is helping to become independent of Russian coal imports, which account for 50 percent of German coal imports.

The authors of the statement include Veronika Grimm, Christoph M. Schmidt from the RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research and Ottmar Edenhofer from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.