Europe's energy policy has failed on many fronts - Repsol CEO

Europe has failed in its energy transition, the chief executive of Spain's biggest oil and gas firm Repsol told the Reuters Energy Transition Europe 2022 conference on Wednesday, citing especially the repercussions of the war in Ukraine. Josu Jon Imaz said Europe failed to guarantee its own energy security by having been too dependent on Russian supplies, did not make energy sufficiently affordable and fell short of decarbonisation plans to confront global warming.

"We fully lost (on energy security and affordability) and that wouldn't be the case if it weren't for the dependence on Russia for years," Imaz said. "We truly abandoned the subject of affordability and today we have a situation where a lot of families, they can't pay their bills in our continent."

Carbon emissions on the continent were down, Imaz added, but were being shifted to other places as industrial activity in developing economies increased. Repsol was trying to address a crunch in scarce and expensive diesel by ramping up refining but there was no quick fix, he added.

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