By hannover-web.com Emmanuel Addehin, Abuja
In an eye-opening study that challenges long-standing claims from the fossil-fuel industry, researchers have discovered that exported liquefied natural gas (LNG) is responsible for significantly higher greenhouse gas emissions than coal. This finding presents a major obstacle to the increasing gas exports from the U.S. to Europe and Asia.
For years, coal has been labeled the worst offender in terms of pollution, while oil and gas companies have touted natural gas as a “cleaner” alternative — a so-called “bridge” fuel amid the rise of LNG terminals. However, this recent study has ignited political discussion in the U.S. by concluding that LNG is 33 percent more detrimental in terms of greenhouse gas emissions over a 20-year period when compared to coal, as highlighted by The Guardian UK.
Robert Howarth, an environmental scientist at Cornell University and the lead author of the study, stated, “The notion that coal is the bigger climate villain is fundamentally flawed. LNG has a greater greenhouse gas footprint than any other fuel.” He further argued, “To promote the export of this gas as a climate solution is simply wrong. It’s nothing more than greenwashing by oil and gas companies that have grossly underestimated the emissions tied to this energy source.”
The research indicates that the energy-intensive processes involved in drilling, transporting, cooling, and shipping gas result in the actual combustion of gas in homes and businesses accounting for only about one-third of the total emissions produced. As such, the study challenges the idea of LNG as a necessary transitional energy source, asserting that “phasing out LNG should be a global priority.”
Published in the peer-reviewed journal Energy Science & Engineering, this research calls into question the rationale behind the rapid expansion of LNG facilities along the U.S. Gulf Coast, which are designed to export gas in large tankers to international markets. Currently, the U.S. is the world’s top LNG exporter, followed by Australia and Qatar.
Previous government and industry assertions suggested that LNG produces significantly fewer emissions than coal, arguing that it could replace coal in countries like China and help European allies facing energy shortages stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, scientific evidence suggests that the growth of LNG exports contradicts global efforts to mitigate dangerous temperature rises. Additional research has revealed that methane emissions, a key component of natural gas, leak from drilling operations at much higher rates than previously believed.
Howarth’s study estimates that as much as 3.5 percent of the natural gas delivered to consumers may escape unburned into the atmosphere — a figure considerably higher than earlier estimates. Methane is roughly 80 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide in the short term, despite its shorter lifespan in the atmosphere. Scientists have cautioned that rising global methane emissions could undermine international climate agreements. The study outlines that nearly half of the total emissions occur during the lengthy transportation of gas from extraction sites, which usually employ hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, particularly in extensive shale formations across the U.S.
