A new report from the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (EASAC) has highlighted the extremely high global warming potential of largely unrecorded methane leakages along the whole natural gas supply chain.
To mitigate climate change, it is crucial to stop using all fossil fuels, to ban new natural gas boilers, and to massively ramp up renewable electricity production.
To replace Russian pipeline gas, European Member States have turned to liquid natural gas (LNG) from outside Europe.
EASAC’s Energy Program Director William Gillett explained: “We understand this is a necessary compromise as an emergency measure to make sure we keep the lights on, people warm and industries running.
“But as we are putting the immediate dependency on Russia behind us, we must completely phase out gas and ramp up renewables.
“We can’t argue our way out of drastic changes; the climate does not make compromises.”
Methane emissions have a lifetime in the atmosphere of only about 10 years, which is ten times shorter than that of carbon dioxide.
However, its 20-year global warming potential is over 80 times that of carbon dioxide, which means that it is far more destructive.
Neven Duić, Chair of EASAC’s Energy Steering Panel, said: “So far, we have been evaluating the impact of greenhouse gas emissions in a time span of up to 100 years – and there is nothing wrong with these calculations.
“However, climate change is progressing so fast that now we must focus on impacts within the next ten years.
“That’s why there is no alternative to replacing natural gas with renewables at once.”
With 65 million boilers installed in the EU to heat buildings, heating is by far the largest use of natural gas.
Eight Member States have already adopted measures to ban the installation of new gas boilers or to require high levels of renewables in buildings.
The report recommends heat pumps and district heating as ready-to-use and climate-friendly alternatives to gas boilers.
It underlines that heating, unlike electricity, is a very local market.
Building structures and regulations, local climate, demand densities and the availability of renewable or waste heat sources influence what should be the best choice for each district or building.
Therefore, cities must integrate the transition into urban planning, and engage with heating system owners and users.
Also, it is vital that this process addresses social injustices.
William Gillett said: “Not everybody has the money or enough credit with banks to go out and buy a new heating system.
“Europe’s success in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions requires foresight, social sensitivity, and support mechanisms that are targeted on the most vulnerable groups and households.”
Gas distribution and supply companies often argue for progressively replacing natural gas with hydrogen, which would allow them to keep their assets running for years to come.
But from a scientific point of view, this approach holds very little promise for heating homes more cleanly.
Anne Neumann, Chair of the EASAC Working Group, said that blending ten per cent hydrogen in natural gas merely delivered one per cent in carbon dioxide reduction, which was not a good use of a valuable energy carrier that would be needed in hard-to-abate sectors.
Neumann said: “We foresee fast growing demand for hydrogen and hydrogen-derived fuels in some industries and for heavy-duty transport.”
For a long time, natural gas has been seen as the ideal bridge from coal on the road towards net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
In some countries, natural gas has become the main fuel to generate electricity – EASAC’s “Future of Gas” report makes clear that this is a dead-end road.
Duić added: “Natural gas should no longer be considered as a transitional option.
“All electricity production and heating based on combustion literally fuels global warming, and must be replaced by renewables such as wind, solar, or hydro.”