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Natural gas

Cutting emissions outside borders

Nature Climate Change volume 12, pages 965–966 (2022)Cite this article

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Phasing out carbon-intensive energy sources is crucial for meeting climate targets, but the role of natural gas is increasingly uncertain. For natural gas electricity to be on a net-zero trajectory, all countries in the natural gas electricity value chain must make efforts to cut emissions.

The energy sector is one of the biggest emitters of GHGs, primarily driven by coal-fuelled electricity generation. Much emphasis is often placed on direct emissions — that is, combustion in the power plant — but emissions along the whole value chain can be significant2,3,4,5. For natural gas electricity, methane is emitted at each stage of the value chain. As methane is a highly potent GHG (30 times stronger than CO2 over 100 years and 83 times stronger over 20 years)6, even small emissions can significantly impact any climate change benefits gained by switching from coal to natural gas. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is an environmental assessment tool that can quantify the impacts associated with each stage of the life cycle: natural gas production, transport (in gas pipelines or in cryogenic ships), combustion in power plants and delivery of electricity to the customer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sustainable Gas Institute, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Jasmin Cooper & Adam Hawkes

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Jasmin Cooper & Adam Hawkes

Authors
  1. Jasmin Cooper
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  2. Adam Hawkes
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Correspondence to Jasmin Cooper.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Cooper, J., Hawkes, A. Cutting emissions outside borders. Nat. Clim. Chang. 12, 965–966 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01504-4

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