After there is a greater chance that Russia will shut down the gas tap completely next winter, it is better to keep closed nuclear plants open for some time, the head of the IEA said in an interview with the International Energy Agency on Wednesday. financial times (FT†

Russia has stopped gas supplies to a number of European countries in recent weeks because they refused to pay in rubles. This also applies to delivery to the Netherlands. But this does not mean that we can no longer get Russian gas at all, because we can still import it from other countries.

But if Russian President Vladimir Putin turns off the gas tap for all European countries, this will become even more difficult. According to IEA Director Fatih Birol, we must prepare for such a scenario. In the interview with FT He says he is happy to reopen coal-fired power plants in the Netherlands, among other places, but, according to him, measures are not enough.

“The closer we get to winter, the more stringent the measures have to become,” Birol says. He urges countries to postpone the planned shutdown of nuclear power plants. Such a closure is not on the table in the Netherlands, but in neighboring Germany, all nuclear power plants should cease to operate by the end of this year. In Belgium, they can certainly remain open until 2035.

Until recently, the European Union relied on Russia for 40 percent of gas consumption, but it has since been able to reduce that share to 20 percent, according to ICIS consultancy. In addition to household consumption, gas is also used to produce electricity.

In order not to endanger the latter, Climate Minister Rob Getten decided on Monday to generate more electricity in our country coal†