"Is it worth creating hurdles that distance us from the most beneficial alternatives?"

Ms. Burmistrova says the climate and decarbonization agenda is not merely a mainstream strategy, but a vital factor for economic decisions—and that it results in fundamentally new demands on the energy industry.

While some may call for a qualitative leap toward economic recovery, she said it would surely be most preferable for everyone if emissions reduction was achieved not just in a revolutionary manner, but also in the most efficient and reasonable way. With a measured approach grounded in proven technologies and gas resources, she believes it’s possible to be faster, better, and cheaper.

“Gas meets all the reasonable ecological requirements. It can substitute for coal in power generation quickly, efficiently, and with cost savings.” She said another intrinsic advantage of natural gas was its mature market mechanisms which were illustrated by its powerful self-balancing capabilities during the 2020 crisis. Natural gas also has the lowest CO₂ emission rates among the traditional fuels. She emphasized that, “it will soon become the source of low carbon and zero carbon fuels, which can be produced with known, tested, and efficient technologies.”

Ms. Burmistrova discussed gas’ ability to provide energy stability, citing a recent example in Austria when a cold snap and surge in energy consumption threatened a blackout—which was quickly prevented with the help of traditional gas, coal, and nuclear generation. To better stabilize the system and avoid future blackouts, she believes new gas fired plants are needed.

Regarding alternative fuels, she said Gazprom is optimistic about hydrogen since its production from natural gas is one of the most promising cost-saving and logical technologies. She noted as well that the developing technology of methane pyrolysis allows the production of hydrogen and carbon black without any CO₂ to emissions. “The demand for such technology is undoubted,” she said.

While natural gas is efficient, ecological, and ready to fuel the future, she believes the key issue right now is overly ambitious and complicated emission-reduction goals that foster excessive regulation. She said this, “ends up prioritizing a limited number of expensive and immature solutions, sometimes hardly efficient. At the same time, technologies with guaranteed cheap and sustainable results may be excluded.” As an example, she said a recent European Union proposal to limit plant emissions to 100 grams of CO₂ per KWh would eliminate even modern gas plants from consideration through a transition period.

Ms. Burmistrova emphasized the need for technological openness on the path to diversification, saying that green hydrogen is too expensive and energy intensive, and its ramping up would require a stretch of Europe’s resources. At the same time, she said renewable capacities cannot be increased to cover the whole future demand for energy and hydrogen. She noted that green hydrogen is problematic because of issues with clean water accessibility.

In conclusion, she said we must be rational and cautious while making revolutionary decisions—not to yield to ideological differences and attempts to manipulate public sentiment for the sake of short-term benefits for companies in certain industries.