Council on Foreign Relations: Natural Gas and Climate Change: It’s Policy that Matters

Study after study seems to be reaching the same conclusion: abundant natural gas is no solution for climate change. Indeed some scientists, having looked at the numbers, have come to an even harsher conclusion: there is so much unconventional gas in the ground that our only hope for dealing with climate change is to leave it untouched.

The chart below, which is frequently invoked by skeptics of unconventional resource development, seems to reinforce the point. The amount of carbon contained in conventional oil and gas makes their extraction look tolerable, but the amount contained in unconventional gas (and in coal) is literally off the charts.

Alas this picture is hugely misleading. Here’s another series of charts that shows why.  MORE