Does natural gas need a decarbonisation strategy?

A commonly heard view from European gas stakeholders is that low carbon supply sources – renewables, nuclear power and coal with carbon capture and storage – on the scale necessary to achieve carbon reduction targets over the next decade will be unrealistically expensive, and that gas will inevitably become the “default” choice for future power generation. Floris van Foreest’s study challenges this assumption and asks whether natural gas needs a decarbonisation strategy, and what such a strategy might look like in terms of: carbon capture and storage, “renewable gas” and back-up for intermittent renewable energy. It specifically asks whether the natural gas industry can expect to prosper in a low carbon economy without making any specific decarbonisation commitments. With virtually all national, EU and NGO/academic energy roadmaps and scenarios projecting a declining share for gas in European energy balances, the industry needs to carefully examine both its assumptions and investments in relation to the carbon footprint of natural gas.