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As an illustration on the individual level , consider that , in 2022 , the average European household paid 1850 euros for gas & electricity compared to 1200 euros in 2020 . This constitutes a worrisome jump in prices of more than 54 % in two years along , greatly outpacing cost of living adjustments across the continent .
As such , with the Alliance at the political level , energy security is overseen by entities such as the Military Committee , the Petroleum Committee , and the Resilience Committee ( formerly the Civil Emergency Planning Committee ), setting objectives and courses of action enacted by various organizations such as the Energy Security Centre of Excellence . Energy security efforts within NATO mostly relate to three tenets : the Land Domain , and the item dealt with in this article .
RUSSIA ’ S ROLE TO PLAY Pivoting to the crisis at hand , it is the Russian Federation , the largest manufacturer and supplier of natural gas within Eurasia and the world , which takes centre stage . To this effect , Russia is noticeably one of the largest energy exporters to the EU , providing an advantage of power to the nation in both economic and political terms . To see evidence of this lever of power in use , one only needs to look at how the country has sought to leverage payment in rubles from EU nations over the past few months to prop-up its struggling economy , burdened by sanctions . Moreover , it was just recently due to Finland and Sweden ’ s formal applications to join NATO that the Russian Federation cut off provision of supplies to Finland .
Understanding that the means of distributing natural gas through the continent is through vast lengths of pipelines , although the flow of gas is generally through friendly Alliance-member nations , they do originate in Russia , providing the tap for control to an adversarial entity . These pipelines , such as the Druzhba or Nord Stream , are utilized and monitored by both the EU and Russia , however , Russia has sole control on the amount of natural gas that passes through these lines . Recently , gas shipments to the EU through these pipelines have been significantly decreased , hence the reason for the large increases in energy costs . Prior to the invasion of Ukraine , Russia maintained that this decrease was mainly due to seasonal challenges and changed demand , including shifted focus towards Asia . However , post-February 24th , it is now evident that this is much more than an economic interest for Russia ; this is the provision of a hegemonic grasp on Europe . Many European nations have outright ceased their import of Russian supplies , which originally destabilized the Russian economy in conjunction with various sanctions imposed by nations of the Western World . However , as the Kremlin undoubtedly recognized the reliance Europe has on its natural gas , it consequently placed the Russian state in a position to exploit said reliance in favour of their own political means and deterrence of the Alliance that ultimately must operate on consensus . For example , as of submission of this
1 . Enhancing energy efficiency while maintaining operational effectiveness ; 2 . Seeking to reinforce resilience & self-sufficiency of NATO entities regarding energy provision ; and 3 . Continued promotion and awareness of the topic as a key issue for the Alliance moving forward .
Although the first and third points mostly deal with issues and efforts currently tackled by entities such as the Energy Security Centre of Excellence , the Environmental Protection Working Group , and the upcoming Climate Change and Security Centre of Excellence , the point on self-sufficiency and protection of assets is actually directly implicated in the current crisis framework . It is therefore of specific importance to NATO in
10 . - M . McCall , “ Canada & US at Risk of Energy Crisis : OPEC and energy security ”, BOE Report , 12 Ju2021 , 10- Ibid .
11 . -NATO , “ Relations with Ukraine ”, 11 January 2022 , accessed 30 January 2022 , https :// www . nato . int / cps / en / natohq / topics _ 37750 . htm .
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12 . - M . Chance & L . Smith-Spark , “ Tensions are high on Ukraine ’ s border with Russia ”, CNN , 28 January 2022 , accessed 04 February 2022 , https :// www . cnn . com / 2022 / 01 / 20 / europe / ukraine-russiatensions-explainer-cmd-intl / index . html .