Lithuania will not use fossil fuels as tool of pressure

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Lithuania will not use fossil fuels as tool of pressure

Most countries are doing the opposite. Skaiste told a conference called Making Green Finance a Reality in the Baltics in Vilnius that we had the objective of increasing excise duties on fossil fuels before we are taking steps backwards because energy prices are very high.

She said that we are under pressure to do the same, but we won't do it.

In Lithuania, gasoline prices have crossed the two-euro per-liter mark this week.

The use of fossil fuels and the promotion of renewable energy sources in Lithuania could be done through taxes, but now is not the right time because of the soaring inflation, according to Skaiste.

One of the ways to do is to be tax policy, but it would be a difficult way to do, especially in the current situation, when the inflation rate in Lithuania is one of the highest in the EU, she said.

In Lithuania, the green economy is now a priority, but earlier it was more important for the country to achieve energy independence from Russia, which used resources as a tool of pressure, according to Skaiste.

The Minister said that Russia was using the resource as a weapon to pressure countries to make the decisions it needed, because we used to pay Gazprom more for gas than other countries.

She said that we have the freedom to buy energy from anywhere, but at the same time prices on international markets have gone up.