GAS
As the global climate crisis intensifies while the production of gas soars, it is clearer than ever that gas must be phased out together with coal and oil. In contrast to industry claims that gas can be a bridge fuel in the clean energy transition, our analysis consistently shows that gas is NOT clean, cheap, or necessary.
Below are a collection of resources on gas that include reports, blogs, and action opportunities.
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WHY WE WORK ON GAS
Since 2000, global gas production has grown over 50%. The expansion of fracking in the United States has played a leading role in this growth, with U.S. production growing over 60%. The U.S. fracked gas boom has left a trail of destruction in its wake, with pipelines, compressor stations, storage terminals, LNG export terminals, and sand mining pits adding to the thousands of wells that scar the landscape, and threaten communities and climate. Â
With global gas production estimated to grow a further 20 to 40 percent within the next two decades, the fossil fuel industry pedals a myth that somehow this massive expansion of fossil gas and associated infrastructure is helping to solve the climate crisis. We work to debunk this âbridge fuelâ myth with our analysis, reporting, and advocacy.
GAS REPORTS & ANALYSIS
Asia Gas Factsheet #3: No Gas Needed
Despite industry claims, the simple fact is that gas is expensive, risky, and dirty. Real-world experience and ongoing research show that transitioning to a clean power system without gas is achievable using a suite of readily available policies, tools, and technologies.
Asia Gas Factsheet #2: Gas Is A Bad Deal For Asia
Asia is one of the few remaining growth markets for gas. The fossil fuel industry and its proponents are pushing to develop $379 billion of gas terminals, pipelines and power plants in Asia over the next decade. This aggressive buildout ignores a simple truth. Renewable energy is cheap and getting cheaper.
Asia Gas Factsheet #1: The Climate Case Against Gas Expansion
This impending buildout of new gas infrastructure poses one of the greatest threats to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement. Instead of forming a bridge â as gas proponents claim â gas expansion builds a wall against the clean energy future we need.
Burning the Gas ‘Bridge Fuel’ Myth: Why Gas Is Not Clean, Cheap, Or Necessary
This report makes the case that gas is not a âbridge fuelâ to a safe climate. As the global climate crisis intensifies and gas production and consumption soars, it is clearer than ever that gas is not a climate solution.
Drilling Towards Disaster: Why U.S. Oil and Gas Expansion Is Incompatible with Climate Limits
At precisely the time in which the world must begin rapidly decarbonizing to avoid runaway climate disaster, the United States is moving further and faster than any other country to expand oil and gas extraction.
As the financial arm of the EU, the EIB has a mandate to act in the public interest. Despite this, the EIB continues to invest heavily in gas infrastructure.
Gas Is Not a Bridge Fuel: Why Irelandâs Climate Goals Cannot Be Met with More Gas
Ireland is on course to miss both its short-term climate commitments within EU legislation. Expanded gas extraction will only make it more difficult to achieve these goals, and must be avoided in order to achieve a safe climate future.
Debunked: The G20 Clean Gas Myth
This report focuses on fossil gas development in the G20 and debunking the myth of fossil gas as a clean transition fuel.
This report examines how a new wave of gas pipeline construction threatens to shunt serious risks and costs on to utility ratepayers.
The Skyâs Limit: Why the Paris Climate Goals Require a Managed Decline of Fossil Fuel Production
This report scientifically grounds the growing movement to keep carbon in the ground by revealing the need to stop all new fossil fuel infrastructure and industry expansion.
A Bridge Too Far: How Appalachian Basin Gas Pipeline Expansion Will Undermine U.S. Climate Goals
This report shows that current projections for U.S. natural gas production â fueled by a boom in the Appalachian Basin â will lock in enough carbon to bust through agreed climate goals.
PROJECT ANALYSIS
Atlantic Coast Pipeline â Risk Upon Risk
The ACP is facing a triple threat of challenges that combine to present serious obstacles for the project to reach completion. It would be prudent for investors to question whether pursuing the project further is a wise use of capital.
The Vanishing Need for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline
Diminishing consumer demand coupled with more affordable renewables are casting doubt on the overall feasibility and potential profitability of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
Jordan Cove LNG and Pacific Connector Pipeline Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The proposed Jordan Cove LNG export terminal and Pacific Connector pipeline would be a substantial source of climate pollution for decades to come.
The Rover Pipeline: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Briefing
We find that the Rover Pipeline would lead to annual emissions of nearly 145 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
The Money Behind the Mountain Valley Pipeline: Is Your Bank Financing Another Fracked-Gas Disaster?
This analysis examines the banks that are in line to finance the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a 301-mile, $3.5 billion fracked-gas project.
The PennEast Pipeline: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Briefing
This analysis finds that the PennEast Pipeline would result in the emissions equivalent the 14 coal plants, or 10 million passenger vehicles.
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Briefing
This analysis finds that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline would cause the emissions equivalent of 20 coal plants, or 14 million passenger vehicles.
The Mountain Valley Pipeline: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Briefing
This analysis finds that the Mountain Valley Pipeline would cause the emissions equivalent of 26 coal plants, or 19 million passenger vehicles.
The Mountain Valley Pipeline: Research Note
We summarize the most significant financial and climate risks to building the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
LATEST GAS POSTS
Activists warn post-COP28 Japan-ASEAN summit will be full of greenwashing and dangerous distractions
COP28âs historic agreement sent a long overdue signal on the end of the fossil fuel era, but glaring loopholes in the agreement could be exploited as Japan hosts the ASEAN summit and Asia Zero Emissions Community Summit.Â
Oil and gas companies, and some governments, are more interested in looking like they're acting on climate change than actually acting. They spend billions on smoke and mirrors such as âcarbon capture and storage,â âcertified gas,â ammonia co-firing, and hydrogen when in reality, they are trying to build escape hatches to continue their dirty business as usual.
As we drove by the long chain of refineries and other petrochemical facilities that surround the small town of Port Arthur, Texas, noxious fumes wafted into our truck. The residents of Port Arthur, Groves and towns along the Gulf Coast are forced to inhale polluted air day in and day out.Â
âSmell that? To some people it smells like money, but itâs death to us,â said John Beard III of the Port Arthur Community Action Network. âThatâs the smell of death.âÂ
Colleagues from Friends of the Earth Japan and I traveled to Texas and Louisiana in early November for a week-long tour,
Fallout from Certified Disaster campaign continues as Project Canary reportedly shifts away from âgas certificationâ
One of the largest methane monitoring companies in the United States is reportedly backing off âcertificationâ programs that allow the oil and gas industry to market methane gas as clean, sustainable or âresponsibly sourced.â
US main street banks like Wells Fargo and Bank of America have provided loans to Mountain Valley Pipeline since the beginning. These banks have continued pouring money into the project over recent years, despite numerous warnings that the project has been financially unsustainable, a threat to the climate and environmental justice communities in Appalachia.
Instead of ending oil and gas finance, the OECD has enacted new public financial incentives for the fossil fuel industry, including for hydrogen and ammonia created from fossil gas, as part of its new "climate-friendly" incentives for Export Credit Agencies (ECAs).
Washington, DC - As the European Parliament discusses new rules to tackle methane emissions in the energy sector, a new report by Oil Change International and Earthworks warns that U.S. certified gas schemes will put the EU's methane emissions reduction goals at risk and undermine EU climate goals that will only be attained by a complete phase-out of gas. In a letter following the report, Certified Disaster: How Project Canary & Gas Certification are Misleading Gas Markets & Governments, groups warn MEPs that US gas producers cannot be trusted, and highlight several issues with certified gas production, including unreliable pollution
Our new report shows that certified gas programs are likely highly unreliable and ineffective, resulting in increased threats to health and climate from the oil and gas industry.