Nord Stream leaks: discussing new climate security threats

In late September, four leaks were detected in the gas pipelines linking Russia to Europe, Nord Stream 2 and Nord Stream 1. 

The incidents, were, in all likelihood, an act of sabotage. In a joint letter to the UN Security Council, Denmark and Sweden declared that they were caused by "at least two detonations" with "several hundred kilos" of explosives, causing major leaks of natural gas into the Baltic Sea. 

In this episode, we discuss the leaks’ environmental and geopolitical impacts with Sascha Müller-Kraenner, the CEO of Deutsche Umwelthilfe (Environmental Action Germany), a leading environmental, nature conservation, and consumer advocacy organisation.  In 2020, his NGO filed a lawsuit with Germany's Higher Administrative Court against the construction of Nord Stream 2  over its potential methane leaks, including as a result of acts of terrorism. Although Müller-Kraenner lost that legal battle, he has now won the argument.

We check in with him whether the leaks are the methane bomb we might fear, and what can we do to fix them. Moreover, could these events prompt governments to take climate security - as well as energy security - more seriously?

The Eurasian Climate Brief is a podcast dedicated to climate issues in the region stretching from Eastern Europe to Russia down to the Caucasus and Central Asia.

This episode is supported by n-ost, The Moscow Times and the European Climate Foundation, and made by:

• Natalie Sauer, a French British environmental journalist and English-language editor for The Conversation.  A former reporter for Climate Home News, her words have also appeared in international media such as Le Monde Diplomatique, Politico Europe, Open Democracy, Euractiv and the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
• Boris Schneider, European Journalism Project Manager at Clean Energy Wire (CLEW). Prior he has worked as a specialist on Eastern European climate and energy topics, amongst others for navos Public Dialogue Consultants and the German Economic Team. He graduated from the Free University of Berlin with a M. Sc. in Economics and is interested in the intersection of political economy and ecology in Eurasia.
• Angelina Davydova, an environmental journalist from Russia. Angelina has been writing about climate change in the region for Russian and international media and attending UN climate summits since 2008. She also teaches environmental journalism and environmental and climate policy and communication in a number of universities and regularly organises training for journalists from Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Caucasus on environmental and climate reporting. Angelina left Russia in March 2022 and is now a fellow of the journalistic programme Media in Cooperation and Transition (MICT) in Berlin.

Production by the www.thepodcastcoach.co.uk