$1 Trillion LNG Infrastructure Boom Threatens Climate Goals
- A report by Earth Insight warns that the planned $1 trillion expansion of LNG infrastructure could harm ecosystems and hinder climate progress.
- Wealthy Western nations, despite advocating for a green transition, are leading this expansion and issuing the majority of new oil and gas licenses.
- Climate activists criticize this as hypocritical and call for greater investment in renewable energy, especially in developing countries.
There is a massive natural gas project pipeline for the next decade, as several world powers have increased their gas production in line with the rise in demand. Much of this production increase will come from wealthy Western countries, with several states using gas as a transition fuel in the shift away from more polluting coal and oil. However, this is leading climate activists to point out the hypocrisy of these states calling for a green transition while also contributing heavily to the rise in global gas production.
The demand for natural gas has been rising, as several countries decrease their dependence on coal and opt for gas as a transition fuel in pursuit of a shift to green. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and subsequent sanctions on Russian energy, also led several gas powers to increase their output to fill the gap and ensure that countries that were heavily dependent on Russian gas could maintain their supply. This has created a mid-term rise in demand that is expected to level out as countries increase their renewable energy capacity.
A recent report by the Sacramento-based NGO Earth Insight suggests that the project pipeline for new LNG infrastructure, which totals over $1 trillion, will contribute to environmental degradation and the deceleration of net-zero progress. Earth Insight warns that greater LNG output could threaten fisheries, human health, ecosystems, and the global climate. It will also make it extremely difficult to achieve the 1.5-degree warming limit set in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Tyson Miller, the Executive Director at Earth Insight, stated, “Investing in LNG infrastructure – especially in some of the world’s most important nurseries of marine life – just doesn’t make any sense. At this point in the energy transition and nature crisis, it’s a one-way ticket to stranded assets and won’t help us solve the climate crisis.”
Yet, most of the countries contributing to the massive LNG expansion pipeline are those also calling for a global green transition. Certain oil-rich states, such as Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, have been repeatedly criticised for doing little to reduce their fossil fuel production and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in recent years, in response to pressure from organisations such as the International Energy Agency (IEA) to transition to green. However, green transition champions, including the UK, the US, Canada, Norway and Australia, are increasingly being seen as “the other petrostates”, due to their continued pursuit of fossil fuels.
These five countries contributed over two-thirds (67 percent) of all new oil and gas licences issued worldwide since 2020. One of the main criticisms of this heavy contribution to global oil and gas output is the fact that these countries have the economic capacity to fund a green transition, with little need for long-term fossil fuel production to meet their domestic demand. Olivier Bois von Kursk, the co-author of the report, stated, “It is deeply concerning that exploration activity has not just continued since the COP28 agreement but increased. Rich countries with relatively low dependence on fossil fuel revenues should be the first to stop issuing licences. We’re not seeing that in the data.”
Harjeet Singh, the global engagement director for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, highlighted, “The hypocrisy of wealthy nations, historically responsible for the climate crisis, is staggering as they continue to invest heavily in fossil fuels – putting the world on track for unimaginable climate catastrophe while claiming to be climate leaders.” Singh added, “Despite having the economic means to transition away from fossil fuels, these nations are petrostates choosing profit over the planet, undermining global efforts to avert the climate emergency.”
So far this year, around three dozen high-capacity, low-dependency countries, including the U.S., the U.K. and Norway, have awarded 121 new licenses, which is more than the rest of the world combined. As much as 11.9 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions could be released during the lifetime of all existing and upcoming oil and gas fields expected to be licensed by the end of the year. Many of these projects will be established in developing countries, which do not have the economic means to invest in a green transition.
Several developing states have called for greater funding from high-income countries to support a green transition in the developing world during the COP climate summits in recent years. India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has repeatedly called for greater support from some of the world’s richest countries to achieve India’s green transition. In 2021, Modi called on developed countries to set a target of contributing at least 1 percent of their GDP to green projects in the developing world. Although new schemes for funding have been developed, there is a severe underinvestment in the increase of renewable energy capacity in the developing world, with most financing continuing to go to oil and gas operations.
By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com
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