Thursday, June 22, 2017

Natural Gas Can’t Help to Curb Climate Change

An oil and gas drilling platform in Australian waters: But what it produces may not be needed. (Image Credit: CSIRO, via Wikimedia Commons) Click to Enlarge.
Natural gas will have to be phased out along with coal if the world is to be kept safe from dangerous climate change.  And that seems likely to have to happen far sooner than most official forecasts, according to a new report.

If countries want to reach their Paris Agreement goals of limiting the long-term world temperature rise to 1.5°C, then many of the proposals to increase gas production and distribution will be unnecessary.  New terminals and pipelines will never be fully used and will become stranded assets.

The authors also warn that unless countries realise quickly that further investment in gas production is both unnecessary and damaging to the climate, they may lock themselves into emissions that they cannot afford to make.

The report, Foot off the Gas, is published by the Climate Action Tracker (CAT), an independent science-based assessment which tracks countries’ emission commitments and actions.

Read more at Natural Gas Can’t Help to Curb Climate Change

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