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The aftermath of the Ukraine war is also leading to a global energy supply shortage.

Amid this crisis, European countries that have been at the forefront of carbon neutrality have declared the restart of coal power plants.



Environmental reporter Jang Se-man covered whether Europe's carbon neutrality is disappearing and what is the situation in Korea.



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At the end of last year, a ship carrying LNG from the U.S. and headed for China turned its course in the opposite direction near Hawaii and headed for Europe.



Europe, which is suffering from natural gas shortages, paid more than the amount of LNG going to Asia and bought it in the middle, and this has been confirmed more than a dozen times.



[Seok Kwang-hoon/Expert Member of Energy Conversion Forum: Even after paying a premium for a premium, it is analyzed that (LNG U-turn) has occurred as they are now purchasing (US LNG) in Europe, receiving a premium (Asian LNG importers) and re-exporting as a result. .)]



Demand has increased due to the economic recovery after Corona, but this is due to the increase in gas supply and demand difficulties as imports from Russia are cut off in the aftermath of the Ukraine war.



Eventually, Germany and Austria, etc. announced the restart of coal-fired power plants that had been halted for a while.



The return of coal, which had been the top priority for withdrawal, followed criticism that Europe's carbon neutrality had been neutralized.



However, it is an analysis that some countries' declaration of return to coal is close to a temporary measure.



In May, the EU came up with the Repower EU Plan while dealing with the Russian gas problem, and the key is to reduce Russian natural gas by 2/3 and find alternative means.



Half of the replacement will be with LNG from the US and the Middle East, and the rest will be filled with renewable energy such as wind power.



He also stated that the consumption of fossil fuels should be reduced.



It is said that the unit price of renewable power is already cheaper than that of thermal power, and there is a strength in energy security due to the nature of renewable power generation that does not use fuel.



[Chun-Taek Lim / Director of Energy Economics Research Institute: (In Europe) In the past 10 years, the price of solar power has dropped by one-tenth, and there has been such a big technological innovation.

Because of the Ukraine crisis, many European countries have advanced their carbon neutrality point.]



So what about our situation?



Unlike Europe, the unit cost of renewable power is much higher than that of coal.



This is because they have not been able to find a solution in terms of location problems of solar and wind power, and the time and cost of licensing.



Right now, we would like to push back renewable energy due to high oil prices and electricity price problems, but if we do not solve the obstacles to expanding renewable energy, our energy security will be threatened.



In addition, the new government said that it would make Europe its new trade partner beyond China, but if it does not keep pace with this carbon-neutral stance, it will inevitably limit its activities in the European market.



(Video editing: Park Chun-bae, VJ: Park Hyeon-woo)