Carl Meyer delves into Canada's quest to gather data supporting liquid natural gas (LNG )potential in reducing worldwide carbon pollution for The Narwhal.
In short:
- The Canadian government has sought assistance from the oil and gas industry in an effort to gain public support for LNG Canada.
- The global push by fossil fuel giants to position LNG as a "not-as-bad-as-coal" alternative is alive and well in Canada.
- The LNG industry's claim of substantive environmental benefits is not supported by climate science.
Key quote:
“LNG is up against the fundamentals of physics: it takes a lot of energy to liquefy and transport the product, and that entails a lot of emissions of both carbon dioxide and methane.”
— Robert Howarth, Earth systems scientist, Cornell University.
Why this matters:
Canada's effort to align its LNG industry with global climate goals is a seemingly intractable problem that is playing out globally as energy behemoths show no sign of cooperating on an energy transition not of their choosing.
