Germany to fire up coal plants as Russia cuts gas supply

• Russian gas firm Gazprom announced last Thursday that it was cutting supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline that links Russia's gas to Germany due to technical problems.

What they're saying: "To reduce gas consumption, less gas must be used to generate electricity. Coal-fired power plants will have to be used more instead," Habeck said.

• "That's bitter, but it's simply necessary in this situation to lower gas usage,'' he added.

The big picture: Germany, along with the rest of the European Union, has moved to reduce its dependence on Russian oil and gas in response to Russia's military invasion of Ukraine.

• The German government's goal is to phase out coal production by 2030, per DW.

Our thought bubble, via Axios' Ben Geman: The announcement shows how the global oil and gas crunch — worsened by Russia's war on Ukraine and responses to it — could work against carbon-cutting in the near-term — even though EU leaders insist they're speeding up efforts to replace Russian fossil fuels with clean energy.

Go deeper: The climate spillover of Russia's invasion of Ukraine