All posts tagged: LNG


Europe’s Energy Crisis Has a Silver Lining: More renewables than ever

by Paul Hockenos

Defying the grimmest projections, Europe made it through the temperate winter of 2023 with remarkably little collateral damage – and even a few big wins. The energy crisis may have displaced Europe’s climate aspirations by a fraction, but thanks to a record rollout of renewables and conservation measures, the continent’s emissions footprint inched downward and positioned Europe to remain within reach of its goal to slash emissions by 55 percent in seven years’ time. And it’s on track to comfortably outpace its pledge to generate 45% of its total energy from clean sources by 2030.

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Despite Fossil Fuel Price Rise, Germany’s Emissions Miss Target

by Paul Hockenos

Although overall energy consumption fell, Germany’s emissions declined only slightly: because coal-fired power plants stepped in for Russian gas. A leading German energy think tank argues that Germany has to undertake structural reforms to get on track. Nevertheless, Germany’s emissions are lower than ever before – evidence that Germany can hit targets by replacing fossil fuels with renewables. The catch is that once replaced, fossil fuels must be eliminated from energy production altogether. Experts think that Germany can still phase out all coal-fired generation by 2030.

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RePowerEU must only be a short-term solution to avert the worse

by Michael Davies-Venn

A diplomatic solution is the only plausible solution to the on-going Russia’s war in Ukraine and it remains elusive. Meanwhile, the energy crisis which is a fallout of the war persists as fiercely as it compromises climate change solutions. From Berlin to Brussels, politicians are struggling with a related imminent crisis, which is how to reduce the growing millions of Europe’s “energy poor” the European Parliament has been told will increase in tandem with escalating energy prices. In this first of a two-part series, Michael Davies-Venn critically analyses the European Commissions’ solution for the energy crisis and offers short and long term policy solutions that are consistent with the EU’s climate goals and global leadership on climate change.

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Insane methane: The disastrous explosion of American Freedom molecules

by L. Michael Buchsbaum

As Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine metastasizes into a global humanitarian crisis, fossil fuel interests are wasting no time in trying to wrench as much glorious shareholder value as possible out of the growing calamity. Lead blogger and podcaster, Michael Buchsbaum argues there’s little coincidence that the United States, the world’s largest oil and fossil gas producer, is using fears of global energy insecurity to gain more market’s for their liquid natural gas (LNG) sector.

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LNG: The liquid path to climate chaos

by Energiewende Team

Europe wonders how quickly and safely it can end its dependency on Russian gas. Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) is being promoted as a solution. The new report “LNG: The liquid path to climate chaos” raises a number of reasons to be sceptical about LNG as a choice for Europe. Eilidh Robb and Frida Kieninger have the details.

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Bulgaria Can Circumvent Russian Gas Freeze

by Paul Hockenos

Many Central and Eastern European countries rely on Russia for more of their fossil fuel than Germany does. This is one reason why Russian president Vladimir Putin targeted Bulgaria and Poland when he announced that these two EU and NATO countries would no longer receive natural gas deliveries. Paul Hockenos spoke with Bulgarian energy expert Radostina Primova.

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LNG terminals for Germany Part II: Climate impacts, possible suppliers and priorities in an energy and climate crisis

by Andy Gheorghiu

On April 4, 2022, the IPCC published he third part of the Sixth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Referring to the findings and key results, UN General Secretary António Guterres said that “investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure is moral and economic madness” while also outlining that “such investments will soon become stranded assets”. In this blog post, Andy Gheorghiu explains why new LNG terminals in Germany are not an exception – even after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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LNG terminals for Germany: Part I – Brief history and state of play

by Andy Gheorghiu

The war in Ukraine has revealed the dependency of Europe on Russian gas. For a long time, gas has been touted as a bridge fuel. Now it turns out that gas is not only a significant contributor to the climate crisis but also a fuel to co-finance Putin’s war machine. A fast phase-out of fossil gas is inevitable, but some think that liquefied natural gas (LNG) will help the EU get rid of the Russian dependency. In this blog series, Andy Gheorghiu describes the situation in Germany and explains why the proposed LNG terminals are a climate disaster and risk to deepen the fossil dependency.

 

Edging into the hydrogen age: Carbon Brief questions if it can really solve climate change

by L. Michael Buchsbaum

Long recognized as an alternative to fossil fuels and once again heralded as an invaluable tool for tackling climate change, hydrogen is a key component within many of the recently announced national net-zero energy plans being rolled out by individual nations as well as the European Union. Hydrogen will likely be given a center role in new President Joe Biden’s climate plan too. To help sort out hope from hype, climate think tank, Carbon Brief recently published a detailed and invaluable hydrogen explainer. With comments from one of the analysts quoted in the explainer, L. Michael Buchsbaum helps untangle hydrogen’s reality.

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Natural Gas is a Bridge to Nowhere

by Paul Hockenos

Natural gas has long been touted as the climate-friendly, carbon-low interim fuel in the transition from fossil fuels to renewables. And the recent fall in its price has made gas a go-to fuel for many countries, including Germany. But experts say this is no reason to build ever more pipelines or to see gas as anything more than another fossil fuel that must be phased out as quickly as possible. Paul Hockenos reports.

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