Status: 11/10/2022 2:34 p.m
In the current energy crisis, countries around the world are building a lot of infrastructure for liquid gas in a hurry. According to a current analysis, this is even more than is actually needed.
In an attempt to replace Russian gas imports with supplies from other countries, many countries are turning to liquefied natural gas (LNG). To do this, they are hastily investing in the provision of the necessary infrastructure. In Germany, for example, the federal government is currently planning five state-owned LNG terminals, each with a capacity of at least 4.5 billion cubic meters.
However, a current analysis by the Climate Action Tracker (CAT), which was published today at the world climate conference in Sharm el Sheikh, comes to the conclusion that countries around the world are building significantly more infrastructure than is actually necessary.
“Overshot”
According to the data, the foreseeable oversupply of LNG could reach around 500 megatons as early as 2030. This corresponds to almost five times the amount of Russian gas imported by the EU in 2021. For example, the EU has to extract around 155 billion cubic meters of Russian gas from other sources every year. It is also double the total volume that Russia is currently selling worldwide.
Bill Hare, head of partner organization Climate Analytics, told Britain’s The Guardian newspaper that the world has “overshot the mark” in trying to fill the gap left by the missing Russian gas. The volume of import capacities currently being created in Europe far exceeds demand.
Climate-damaging gases from LNG trading
Hare underlines that there is a global run on LPG in Europe, Africa, North America, Asia and Australia. According to Statista, the countries with the largest export capacities in the field of LNG are Australia, Qatar and the United States. If all projects were to be implemented, it would drive emissions of climate-damaging gases such as CO2 and methane to even more dangerous levels. Nowhere could fossil fuels be the solution to the current climate and energy crisis.
In March of this year, the EU concluded an agreement with the United States, according to which it will buy an additional 15 billion cubic meters of liquid gas there this year alone. In the long term, the amount should increase to 50 billion cubic meters per year, it was said at the time. As a result, around a third of current gas imports from Russia would be replaced by US imports – arguably at a higher price. In addition, large quantities of the gas are obtained in the USA through fracking, which is said to be harmful to the climate.
The fact that Germany is continuing to expand renewable energies is positive, according to the CAT report. However, his plans for gas and LNG infrastructure are cause for “great concern”.
Global warming by 2.4 degrees
Another result of the Action Tracker analysis is: According to researchers, even if all countries implement their climate protection commitments for 2030, the earth will still warm up by around 2.4 degrees by the end of the century. On this point, the analyzes come to the same value as at the climate conference in Glasgow a year ago.
If you only look at what the states are currently doing and ignore further announcements, the planet will heat up by 2.7 degrees by 2100. According to calculations by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, emissions of climate-damaging greenhouse gases would have to be roughly halved by 2030 in order to achieve the 1.5 degree target.