Is natural gas key to sustainable development model? NGOs think otherwise
Natural gas is cleaner and produces fewer global warming emissions than other fossil fuels, making it key to our transition to a low-carbon future, but it comes with its own serious drawbacks.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said recently that natural gas is crucial to its sustainable development model which requires oil and coal use to fall sharply if we are to get anywhere near the Paris agreement climate change targets.
Natural gas is relatively cheap, abundant and produces 50 per cent less CO2 than coal, used widely, especially in Asia to generate electricity for fast growing economies.
In its latest annual report, the IEA pencilled in a 10 per cent increase in natural gas use through to the end of the 2020s while oil use would have to return to levels last seen in the 1990s.
