W speech president Donald Trump, in Davos last month, powerfully criticized “windmills”, calling them “lost” and the countries that buy them called them “stupid people”. Just 5 days later, 9 European countries signed an agreement to build a immense wind power centre in the North Sea, in the heart of the European oil and gas industry.
This agreement, which is not a direct consequence to Trump's declarative speech, offers Europe immense benefits: it can increase energy safety and free the continent from US oil and gas at a time erstwhile the US is unstable partner.
Europe is 1 of the many economical powers importing energy, for which renewable energy sources are increasingly synonymous with energy independence: India rapidly They're buying for solar energy, and more wind and solar energy was installed in China in 2024 than was the full amount of renewable energy in the US.
The U.S. is in strong opposition, focusing on fossil fuels, at the same time trying to block wind and solar projects . In terms of energy, the United States is now more "acquainted with petrochemical countries specified as Saudi Arabia, the United arabian Emirates and Russia," said Thijs Van de Graaf, an adjunct of global politics at the University of Ghent.
The task is expected to produce 100 gigawatts of wind energy at sea – adequate to power about 50 million homes – connected to countries utilizing offshore high-voltage cables. The task aims to build energy resilience, supply affordable electricity and guarantee energy security.
Europe, unlike the US, does not have immense reserves of home fossil fuels and their home production is falling. The vast gas deposits in the Netherlands have been closed after years of mining, which caused earthquakes, and the extraction from an ageing oil and gas pool in the North Sea is decreasing.
The block is presently importing Almost 60% Your energy. This level of dependence "is a kind of vulnerability... to pressures from others," said Louise van Schaik, an older technological individual at Clingendael, a Dutch think tank dealing with global relations. Over the last fewer years, various countries have put force on this.
Russia has "really utilized gas as a weapon" against Europe since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, said van Schaik. With Russia's simplification in gas flow, prices rose sharply, raising energy bills and contributing to the crisis of maintenance costs. Europe rapidly took action to reduce its dependence on Russia, but alternatively of diversification, it turned its dependence on Russia into dependence on the United States, said van Schaik. Almost 60% of European imports of liquefied natural gas in 2025 will come from the United States.
The improvement of US LNG supplying Europe was an crucial alternate to Russian gas, but it besides exposed the Union to variable natural gas prices that could increase in the event of increased demand. "We have seen many real economical impacts due to the deficiency of inexpensive Russian gas and the transition to LNG, which was much more expensive," said Linda Kalcher, founder of the EU think tank strategical Perspectives.
Last summer, erstwhile Trump tightened the threat of introducing customs, Europe undertook to buy American oil, gas and atomic power worth $250 billion per year for the next 3 years — this over 3 times more than presently importing from the US.
In October, Trump administration contributed to abandonment Maritime plans for "the world's first global carbon tax", and in November published a national safety strategy in which it powerfully criticised the European Clean Energy Policy and made it clear that expanding energy exports from the United States " allows us to task forceIt’s okay. ”
But Trump's demands to take over Greenland – with short-lived fears that he would consider utilizing military force to get it – were a real “moment of revival”, said Van de Graaf. This was a immense blow to transatlantic relations.
The United States is applying "tactics of intimidation", said Jennifer Morgan, a German erstwhile climate envoy. "I think it just woke the EU to specified an degree that it is now very dependent and susceptible to the influence of another leader," she added.
Experts in a conversation with CNN say that clean energy offers a way from dependence on the US to energy security. The continent has adequate of it, from the sun-infested south to the windy north. The North Sea, with shallow waters and impetuous climate, is the “most promising area in the world” for offshore wind energy, said Van de Graaf.
Globally, the renewable energy sector faces challenges: natural materials and labour are more expensive, investment levels are falling and in the US Trump is trying to – Uneffectively so far – block wind projects, which further undermines investor confidence. However, the European agreement on offshore wind energy aims to reduce costs through its tremendous scale and emphasis on interconnections between countries.
The way Europe thinks about clean energy has changed, Morgan said. It was erstwhile about climate policy, now about costs and politics. Renewable energy "changed economics," she added. "She changed the political economy".
Trump's administration, turning distant from clean energy and doubling investments in fossil fuels, accelerates this decision towards clean energy across the Atlantic, said Van de Graaf. "Despite all its rhetoric, (Trump) in fact does the renewable energy manufacture a favour".
