Progress on renewables and natural gas is overdue and now is the time to make economically viable choices that will enhance Cyprus’ energy security and that of the eastern Mediterranean and Europe for decades to come, US Ambassador to Cyprus, Julie Fisher, said on Friday at the Southeast Europe Energy Forum in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Now is the time for Cyprus to emerge from some of those past patterns that have prevented overdue progress, she said.

The Ambassador said that two and half years into the war in Ukraine, high global demand for natural gas has empowered and enriched Russia and so there is an urgency for western nations that possess these resources to get them to market as soon as possible.

Speaking about the Cyprus case, she said that progress on renewables and natural gas “is overdue” and that now is the time to make economically viable choices that will enhance Cyprus’ energy security and that of the eastern Mediterranean and Europe for decades to come. “Now is the time for Cyprus to emerge from some of those past patterns that have prevented overdue progress” she said.

She also said that Cyprus, “in that key position that it has always been in”, at the crossroads of Middle East, Europe and North Africa, “and with the transatlantic shift away from Russian energy and cutting off that financing for Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine”, was poised to play an essential role in promoting this energy security and energy transition if it makes the choice to do so.    

According to Fisher American companies that are in this sector have made their commitments clear with long-term investments that will power the eastern Med for generations.

This, she added, includes not only financial investments but also the sharing of expertise and experience, “ensuring the region is equipped with the infrastructure and technology to meet future energy demands sustainably and to counter that pressure coming from the Kremlin”.

She also said that in the eastern Mediterranean, US partnerships were driving the development of traditional energy resources and the shift toward low carbon economies aligning with global climate goals and enhancing the role in global energy market.