“We think that we can switch to another vehicle, but we are still driving towards the abyss,” said Andy Gheorghiu, a Germany-based anti-gas and fracking campaigner after US president Joe Biden and European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen announced aUS-EU gas deal to reduce Russian energy dependence.
A further 15 billion cubic meters worth of liquefied natural gases (LNG), almost all sourced from hydraulic wells in the United States, will now arrive on European shores across the Atlantic. This is still only a third of the gas that Germany imported from Russia in 2022.
Activists fear that replacing natural gas with more expensive LNG will not only make it less secure, but also threaten the long-term climate goals.
“[This]”Accord puts the EU/US on a misguided, dangerous path by fast tracking new infrastructure to import fossil fuel into Europe,” said Murray Worthy (leader of the gas campaign at the environment NGO Global Witness). “Building new import terminals could lock in fossil gas imports for many years, long after the EU has to stop using this climate-degrading fuel.
Concerns are also growing over the immediate climate impacts of LNG fracked deep below the earth’s surface.
Though fracking is banned in the European Union because of its environmental impact, including the use of chemicals, the EU says it is happy to source it from the US.
Fracked gas and climate-destroying methane leakage
Campaigners believe that the push to increase so-called “freedom gaz” has serious climate implications due to the fact that it comes from fracked sources with high methane emissions. Global warming impacts of methane, which is the most potent greenhousegas (GHG), are around 85 times methane higher than CO2 over a 20-year period Gheorghiu says that little has been done to tackle the diverse sources of “supply-side” methane leaks on both sides of the Atlantic.
The US-EU agreement was announced on Thursday, but it was careful to balance the goal of diversifying gas supplies and “climate objectives.”
The LNG deal aims to “reduce greenhouse gas intensity of all new LNG infrastructures and associated pipelines”, including by using clean energy to power on-site operations, reducing methane leaching, and building clean, renewable hydrogen-ready infrastructure.
Yet, if Russian gas is simply to be replaced in the short-to-medium term, it is likely to retain its mantle as the second-largest sourceThe European Union has the second highest CO2 emissions after coal.
Meanwhile across the Atlantic, Gheorghiu points out that inconsistent regulations have made some US states a “wild west” for the fracking industry.
In Texas, for example, high emissions from so-called methane flaring often go unregulated, allowing leakage from the tens of thousands of wells in the Permian Basin that stretches into New Mexico its gas reserves have been Labeled “some of the dirtiest in the world.”
One, indeed. 2019 studyThe fracking boom in America was responsible for a decade-long increase in global atmospheric methane omissions. It concluded that North American shale gas production may have been responsible for more than half of the global increase in emissions from fossil fuels in the past decade.
Gheorghiu notes that a lot of the gas imported to Europe is being used as a chemical feedstock to plastics and fertilizers. This means that new LNG will discourage decarbonization in these high-emission raw material sectors.
1.5 degree target could be threatened by LNG exports
Researchers Amanda Levin, and Christina Swanson of the US-based Natural Resources Defense Council are involved. concludedAny attempt by the US to increase LNG production and imports would be counterproductive to any attempts to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees.
They described the “rapidly increasing” export of the product, which was marketed as a “bridging oil” to clean energy transition. The emissions are approximately 50% lower than coal, but will “lock in fossil fuel dependency, making it even harder to transition to low-carbon and zero-carbon energy.”
Research shows that LNG’s climate impact will double if it is extracted, transported, liquefied, and re-gasified in addition to the GHG emissions from actual gas burning.
The 130 to 213 million metric tons of new GHG emissions in the US generated by a tripling of exports between 2020 and 2030 will be like putting up to 45 million more fossil fuel-powered cars on the road annually it will also reverse the 1% annual GHG decline achieved in the last decade, say the authors.
Russian gas will continue to be the main source of LNG.
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck was also in Qatar and UAE this month to search for more gas alternatives. However, analysts believe that there is limited supply and that prices are soaring.global demand make it difficult to massively increase the LNG flow to Europe.
Until then, infrastructure like terminals, which is crucial for Europe’s goal to cut Russian gas, will take between two and three years to build. Imports down by two-thirdsBy year’s end, unlikely.
Climate campaigners see fossil fuels as a key driver of conflict and need to be phased out and replaced by renewable energy.
Global Witness’ Murray Worthy said that “more investment and reliance in fossil fuels is music” to the ears despots around the globe who recognize this as an energy system that benefits their interests.” “If Europe wants to get rid Russian gas, it must phase out all gas.
Gheorghiu stated that “We have the unique historical opportunity and obligation to choose now for an unprecedented shift in the way we produce and consume energy.” “But, the solution presented by trans-Atlantic governments was nothing but business as usual.”