Do you know the real facts about fracking and climate change?
Will fracking for shale gas help tackle climate change? The answer is no.
Friends of the Earth has just published a briefing on why fracking won’t help tackle climate change.
Below are the main points outlining why fracking is incompatible with tackling climate change. You can download the whole document [pdf] with references.
1) Unburnable carbon
It is well understood that to avoid dangerous climate change, more than 80% of known fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground.
This is known as “unburnable carbon” which is acknowledged by, among others, Shell, President Obama and the Governor of the Bank of England.
Setting up a whole new fossil fuel industry in the form of fracking will only add to the stockpile of fossil fuels that we can’t burn.
There is no guarantee other countries will produce less gas just because we develop UK shale gas.
2) Fracking is not compatible with tackling climate change
The conditions laid down by leading academics, including experts in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for gas to have a role in tackling climate change are not in place.
3) Fracked gas will not replace coal – and could threaten renewables
The Government’s own advisors the Committee on Climate Change says that the UK should not be using coal for power generation beyond the early 2020s.
However the fracking industry states that fracked gas could not be produced in a significant way for around a decade.
Therefore shale gas won’t be replacing coal and instead could risk replacing renewables.
4) There is no guarantee that methane leaks will be low
Academic experts say it’s too early to say what methane emissions from shale gas production will be.
This means there is no certainty that fracked gas will be lower carbon than coal, LNG or conventional gas.
5) Renewable energy and energy efficiency are ready to go now
We know what the real answers are:
- a nationwide, economy-wide energy efficiency programme
- a hugely increased role for renewables.
As well as being better for the climate, it would also be
- better for energy security
- better for the economy and jobs
- better for energy bills.
John Ashton, former Special Representative on Climate Change to Tory and Labour Foreign Secretaries, puts it as follows:
You can be in favour of fixing the climate. Or you can be in favour of exploiting shale gas. But you can’t be in favour of both at the same time
John Ashton
Download our fracking and climate change briefing [pdf]
Post written by Rose Dickinson, 11 September 2015
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