A commentary on the relabelling of natural gas a green.
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Why are people saying natural gas is green?
There’s been a movement to rebadge the fossil fuel Natural Gas as Green. The idea was first touted by the European Commission in early 2022. Kwasi Kwarteng, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy of the United Kingdom, followed suit in May.
The main reasoning for this seems to be along the lines that Natural Gas is a transition fuel and it is likely that we will be using it for decades to come. Therefore, we should be getting it locally for the security of supply and a green label will encourage investment. For context, gas accounted for 39% of our electricity generation in the past 12 months. I think that the transition fuel aspect is a reasonable argument and I agree to an extent.
What I disagree with is the labelling of natural gas as green to make it more palatable to investors who aren’t looking too closely at what they are buying into and just looking for a label. Conventional carbon calculations show that when gas is burned it has carbon emissions which are roughly half of coal. As shown in the chart below. However, at the end of the day, it is a fossil fuel and when burned produces carbon emissions.
Better, than coal is good though, isn’t it?
Yes. Better than coal is good, but if you look at how much coal we are currenting using to generate electricity compared to recent years it’s clear gas generation has displaced it. However, what isn’t taken into account here is the emissions to get the gas to where it needs to be and leakage rates of just 2% of natural gas can mean it is just as dirty as coal. This is largely derived from the fact that over a 20-year period it is around 84 times as powerful per unit of mass as carbon dioxide. Sources of methane leaks are from the production, transport and use of natural gas. Showing how this simple assumption becomes very blurry.
Since 2008 there has been am upwards trend in methane emissions, this is accredited to fracking for gas in parts of the America. The actual amount of methane leaked into the atmosphere is also significantly under-reported.
Conclusion
We need a pragmatic approach to energy projects if we are to have a fair, affordable and secure energy transition. For this to happen we need transparency and to avoid misleading labels such as green gas. We also need to recognise that renewables have some shortcomings that gas-fired projects can address. So let us get all the cards on the table and have a proper conversation about the energy transition and the trilemma of cost, security of supply and carbon intensity. It’s not going to be an easy problem to solve, but transparency is key.