"The EU imported some 155 billion cubic metres of natural gas from Russia in 2021, accounting for around 45% of the bloc's gas imports and nearly 40% of its total gas consumption. Progress towards net-zero will "over time" bring down gas use and imports, but the current "crisis" raises the specific question about imports from Russia and how they can be quickly brought down, the IEA said.

"Nobody is under any illusions anymore," IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said at the launch of the 10-Point Plan to Reduce the European Union's Reliance on Russian Natural Gas.

The plan provides "practical steps" to cut Europe's reliance on Russian gas imports by more than a third within a year while supporting the shift to clean energy in a secure and affordable way, he said. "Europe needs to rapidly reduce the dominant role of Russia in its energy markets and ramp up the alternatives as quickly as possible."

The ten points of the plan are:

• Do not sign any new gas supply contracts with Russia
• Replace Russian supplies with gas from alternative sources
• Introduce minimum gas storage obligations
• Accelerate the deployment of new wind and solar projects
• Maximise power generation from bioenergy and nuclear
• Enact short-term tax measures on windfall profits to shelter vulnerable electricity consumers from high prices
• Speed up the replacement of gas boilers with heat pumps
• Accelerate energy efficiency improvements in buildings and industry
• Encourage a temporary thermostat reduction of 1°C by consumers
• Step up efforts to diversify and decarbonise sources of power system flexibility"