EU efforts insufficient to get through winter without Russian gas: IEA

PARIS, July 19 (AFP): Europe's efforts to diversify suppliers will not be enough to get it through winter without Russian gas, the head of the International Energy Agency warned Monday, urging immediate efforts to cut demand.

The comments by the IEA's director Fatih Birol came as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signed an energy deal in Baku, under which deliveries of Azerbaijani gas will double over the next few years.

But Birol said in an article published by the IEA: "It is categorically not enough to just rely on gas from non-Russian sources-these supplies are simply not available in the volumes required to substitute for missing deliveries from Russia.