Upstream Group Welcomes EU Climate Law

The International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP) said March 4 that it supports the EU’s objective to reach climate neutrality by 2050, embodied in the draft European Union Climate Law. "We call on policy-makers to follow up on the Climate Law with an inclusive approach that promotes all available technologies and solutions equally, and encourage the EU to step up its engagement with its global partners to combine decarbonisation efforts," it said.

“With the Climate Law, the EU sets a clear objective on the horizon. Reaching climate neutrality by 2050 will be an immense challenge for the EU as a whole. We simply cannot afford to try and take shortcuts or to cherry pick solutions anymore. We need policy-makers to help deploy all large-scale alternatives: carbon capture use and storage and clean hydrogen from natural gas will be key,” said IOGP.

The group's members plan to minimise emissions linked to the production, processing and transport of its products, including methane leakage and flaring, as well as the electrification of platforms.

It sees natural gas as a cost-effective alternative to coal and enabler of renewable energy integration, but the group's members will also invest more in other low-carbon and renewable energies and services including wind, solar, batteries and biofuels. "We also pursue nature-based solutions essential to tackle emissions which are too difficult or technically impossible to avoid," IOGP said.

"Oil and gas account for nearly 60% of EU energy demand today, therefore the involvement of our sector will be instrumental to making Europe’s transition to a cleaner energy system a success,” IOGP concluded.

More details needed

However the draft law does have shortcomings, according to researcher Andrei Belyi, who told NGW March 5 that all laws have a chapter of definitions of the terms used. This needs one in order to avoid conflicting interpretations, he said. Carbon neutrality, low-carbon and zero-carbon technologies in particular need to be defined, including the measurement of the carbon – different gases have different global warming potential over different time horizons.

This further implies a differentiation between various greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapours. "It is clear that the EU Climate Law doesn't go into detailed distinction between different emissions and their uneven effect on the atmosphere," he said.

Also, the process of full electrification might imply losing competitiveness, especially in transport and industrial processes. In this respect, the law could have provided clarity in defining each energy source in terms of a balance between competitiveness and environmental harm: on the atmosphere through emissions and on the biosphere through waste, he said.

He identified electric vehicles as a case in point: their batteries are charged with power generated from fossil fuels. Building the infrastructure to enable the ban of diesel and petrol vehicles will entail a lot of energy, first at the installation and then the operating phases. This increases emissions relative to internal combustion engines running on compressed or liquefied natural gas, which are the real low-carbon fuels, he said. And then there is the question of safe and affordable disposal at the end of the battery's life.

He also pointed out that the juxtaposition between 'good renewable energies' and 'bad fossil fuels' is often made within a top-down approach without considering realities on the ground. For example, in some areas, non-recycled waste of lithium products may generate more harm than a shift from carbon-intensive to low-intensive fossil fuels. Once again, the climate law could have addressed those issues.

NGVs on the rise

While electric vehicles have stolen the limelight, the number of new registrations for passenger cars powered by compressed natural gas (CNG) rose nearly 6% from 2018 to 69,900 last year, just over half of which were in Italy.

There were also 1,980 new gas buses and 8,910 new light commercial gas vehicles in Europe. 2,120 new CNG trucks also started on the roads. The number of new LNG powered heavy-duty trucks (4,510) has almost tripled compared with 2018, National Gas Vehicle Association Europe said late February. The number of CNG filling stations in Europe reached 3,732, while the number of LNG stations rose 50% to 249.

“These numbers confirm the ever-growing attraction of natural gas mobility for European consumers. This is the result of a mature gas vehicle technology with high engine efficiency and performance, widespread infrastructure and low total cost of ownership (TCO), but also great environmental benefits of gas in transport," said NGVA Europe's secretary-general Andrea Gerini.