HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS INVESTED IN LIQUEFIED GAS (LNG) PROJECTS. “THIS IS HOW WE RISK A CLIMATE BOMB”

Reclaim Finance study on the dangers of large investments in LNG. It is estimated that CO2 emissions will increase to the same extent as all those deriving from coal.

LNG, liquefied natural gas, is what has allowed Italy and Europe to partially free themselves from supplies coming via gas pipeline from Russia. LNG is transported by ship, and costs more. It comes mainly from the United States, Qatar and….Russia. Gas is not in fact subject to particular sanctions, the consequences of which would have been unsustainable first of all for Europe, already struggling with a cost of supplies that is steadily double compared to the past. So, the money that we no longer give to Moscow in the right hand, we place in the left.

There is more. The growing demand for LNG has attracted huge investments in the sector. According to a report by Reclaim Finance, international banks have invested 213 billion dollars in projects for new terminals to accommodate gas tankers. According to the study, reported by the English newspaper The Guardian, this could trigger a “climate bomb” with the release of annual CO2 emissions equal to those of all the coal-fired power plants operating in the world.

Unfortunately, the gas extracted, cooled and then delivered by ship, produces emissions even higher than those of the use of coal, the most polluting of fossil fuels. Eight new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals and 99 onward terminals have been completed in the past two years, increasing global export capacity by 7% and global import capacity by 19%. Oil companies are planning to build a further 156 terminals worldwide by 2030 (63 export and 93 import).

These facilities, including inevitable methane leaks, could produce around 10 gigatonnes of greenhouse gases by the end of the decade. Justine Duclos-Gonda, a campaigner at Reclaim Finance, told the Guardian: “Companies are betting on LNG projects, but each of their planned projects jeopardises the already imperiled future of the Paris agreement. Banks and investors claim to be backing oil companies in the clean energy transition, but instead they are investing billions of dollars in future climate bombs.”

Last month, the International Energy Agency warned that global LNG markets are heading for a gas oversupply, incompatible with the goal of keeping global temperatures from rising more than 2.4°C above pre-industrial levels. The agency estimates that supply will increase by nearly 50% by 2030, outpacing demand in all three scenarios modeled by the agency. This would inevitably lead to lower prices, which is good for households’ pockets and companies’ competitiveness, but bad for the environment.

Cheap gas would encourage greater dependence on this source at the expense of investment in renewables.