COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Eight European Union countries bordering the Baltic Sea have agreed to increase offshore wind power generation capacity sevenfold by 2030 to decrease dependency on Russian energy, Denmark’s prime minister said on Tuesday.
The pledges come after Russia has either reduced or halted gas supplies to some countries since its invasion of Ukraine.
“We share a great potential for offshore wind,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said at an energy summit in Copenhagen. “As long as we depend on fossil fuels, we are vulnerable.”
The Baltic Sea currently has 2.8 gigawatts (GW) offshore wind capacity installed, with almost all of it in Danish and German waters.
The agreement was made at a summit attended by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and ministers and lawmakers from Denmark, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Sweden, which all border the Baltic Sea.
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
