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Qatar threatens to cut off gas supplies to Europe over human rights and environmental law
Qatar Energy CEO Saad Al-Kaabi issued a stern warning to the European Union.
According to a letter addressed to the Belgian government, Qatar is threatening to reduce its liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to the EU if the European Commission implements new sustainability rules it plans to impose on companies. These rules are scheduled to take effect between 2027 and 2029 and will penalize large companies that fail to meet specific environmental and labor standards, including the goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, a goal which Qatar Energy does not plan to achieve.
According to sources from MEES, Reuters, and Asharq Al-Awsat, Qatar sent a letter to the Belgian government, published by the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, threatening to cut off gas supplies to the EU in response to the bloc’s sustainability due diligence law, which requires large companies operating in the bloc to monitor and address human rights and environmental issues in their supply chains.
In his letter to the Belgian government, Qatari Energy Minister Saad Al-Kaabi, who also serves as CEO of QatarEnergy, stated that Doha is particularly concerned about the directive’s requirement that companies have a climate change transition plan consistent with preventing global warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius—the goal of the Paris Agreement. He emphasized that “the corporate sustainability due diligence directive undermines the right of countries to determine their own national contributions to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.” Qatar also proposed deleting the directive’s requirement for climate transition plans.
Al-Kaabi added, “If further changes are not made to the directive, the State of Qatar and QatarEnergy will have no choice but to seriously consider alternative markets outside the EU for our LNG and other products, which offer a more stable and welcoming business environment.”
It is worth noting that the spokesperson for the Belgian delegation to the European Union did not comment on the Qatari letter.
The dispute between Doha and Brussels is expected to make Europe increasingly dependent on LNG imports from the United States.
Qatar is the world’s third-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), after the United States and Australia. It has provided Europe with between 12 and 14 percent of its LNG supplies since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
