When it comes to energy, Germany is a bit of a conundrum. It’s a global leader in renewables usage, having increased the share of renewables in its total energy consumption from 6% to an impressive 25% over the past decade. Yet it’s also a heavy user of coal – a fact that’s glaringly inconsistent with its sustainable energy leadership. What’s even more surprising, however, is that Germany is actually the biggest importer of natural gas from Russia. According to BP’s latest annual review , it imported close to a whopping 40 billion cubic meters of gas from the Russian Federation in 2013. That places it well ahead of even Ukraine, which imported about 25 billion cubic meters, as the chart below shows. German reliance on Russia Germany relies on imports to supply more than 70% of its domestic energy demand, with Russia alone representing a quarter of the country’s […]