Europe has always been the most pious climate ideologues, but there is a growing realization that they need their own supplies of oil and gas. Greece and the UK are reopening offshore oil and gas platforms and Italy is thinking about it.

Australia looks set to be the last place on Earth where people are still playing climate-vanity games.

Last month Greece issued its first gas exploration license in 40 years. The UK loosened its ban on new exploration in the North Sea and the Freech Energie Giant said it would spend $6b USD to buy 50% stakes in natural gas fired plants across Europe. Meanwhile Germany, the home of thousands of wind turbines, is building 10 GW of gas powered plants.

Even the New York Times admits Europe is taking an increasingly pragmatic approach to energy and climate change:

By Stanley Reed: 

The world has changed since the Paris agreement was adopted decade ago with ambitious goals to tackle climate change. It has become increasingly apparent that the agreement's targets to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions will not be met, and not just because the Trump administration has pulled out of the Paris process.

Energy companies have taken note. "They've certainly abandoned the idea that they can lead the world along that kind of pathway," said Luke Parker, vice president for corporate research at the energy consultant Wood Mackenzie, referring to the Paris agreement.

Even Germany, which has long prided itself on being a leader in renewable energy, is building gas-powered generation plants capable of generating 10 gigawatts, a substantial amount.

Thank Donald Trump. Even though the US supplies 16% of the EU's gas, he and U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright have been leaning on the Europeans to drill for their own again instead of importing it from Russia and he's told Britain it was making a "big mistake" and should be opening the North Sea. Just yesterday, the US Deputy State Secretary was pointing out to the Europeans that they spend more on Russian oil and gas than they do helping Ukraine.

Who the hell ever heard of that one?" said Donald Trump:
It comes as US President Donald Trump has piled pressure on NATO members to stop buying Russian energy, in a bid to end the Russia-Ukraine war. At the UN last week he said, "They're funding the war against themselves. Who the hell ever heard of that one?" Trump was referring to the more-than one billion euros ($1.35bn) EU countries are still paying to Russia each month for fossil fuels. — Aljazeera

"Germany — Ukraine's largest European donor with about $17.5 billion in assistance — still purchased approximately $20 billion worth of Russian oil and gas over the same period."…" Italy delivered around $3 billion in aid but bought $27.5 billion worth of Russian oil and gas." … France paid more than $20 billion for Russian energy while giving roughly $6 billion to Ukraine. — New Voice of Ukraine

EU legislators agreed last week to stop buying Russian gas by 2027 — to stop "Moscow weaponizing energy".