According to a study released today by the David Suzuki Foundation and the Pembina Institute, some common assumptions about the role of natural gas in combating climate change do not hold up to scrutiny.
In his report – Is Natural Gas a Climate Change Solution for Canada? – author Matthew Bramley concludes that, although natural gas contains less carbon than other fossil fuels, fighting climate change requires slower, not faster, addition of new natural gas production capacity.
The report also concludes that government must take much greater care before approving the development of unconventional resources such as shale gas.
“Economic modelling consistently shows that efficient policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will lead to less natural gas than under business as usual – even in the near term,” said Bramley, director of research for the Pembina Institute.
“The evidence is strong that Canada should be focusing not on natural gas but on zero-emission solutions, such as renewable energy.”
Canada is the world's third-largest producer of natural gas. Although overall production has recently been declining, new sources and methods for exploiting "unconventional" natural gas reserves, such as shale gas, have led industry and government officials to argue that gas could play a role as a "bridging" fuel for short-term reductions in the greenhouse gas emissions.
Dale Marshall, climate change policy analyst for the David Suzuki Foundation, said "Recent shale gas development in the U.S. has had major environmental impacts. Expanded natural gas production in Canada would bring a host of problems – as well as making it harder to fight climate change.”
The report makes a number of recommendations, including:
- requiring new natural gas processing plants to capture and store carbon dioxide;
- strengthening government regulations to minimize the impacts on air, water and soil from natural gas operations;
- improving environmental assessment and governance processes; and
- requiring producers to publicly disclose the chemical composition of the fluids used in fracturing ("fracking") of unconventional gas wells.
Jennifer Harrison