Europe’s import of Russian natural gas in 2023 fell by 55.6% year-on-year, reports show.

According to a Reuters analysis, the average daily pipeline exports of natural gas from Russia to Europe went from 174.8 million cubic meters (mcm) in 2022 to 77.6 mcm in 2023.

Additionally, Reuters noted that Russia exported approximately 63.8 bcm of gas to Europe by various routes in 2022, a drastic slump since 2018 and 2019, when they marked record exports of 175-180 bcm.

As payback for Europe’s assistance of Ukraine in 2022, Russia severely reduced its gas deliveries to that continent. As a result of the invasion, Europe has also tried to gradually wean itself off of Russian gas.

Now European leaders are trying to ban Russian gas completely, by finalizing legislation that would gradually reduce Europe’s dependency without affecting the EU gas market.

Once Russia slashed its supplies to Europe, the old continent was forced to look for alternatives, and for the most part the LNG demand was met by the United States, the Financial Times reports.

Europe has also sought to ramp up wind and solar power in an effort to cope with the weak supplies in order to preserve energy. Germany, for example, produced more than 50% of its power from renewable sources in 2023.

Recently, the European Commission (EC) announced and joint collaboration with the EU Innovation Fund, granting an investment of 65 million euros to back 17 small-scale innovative clean tech projects.