There’s No Such Thing As ‘Clean’ Gas
If you’ve watched Irish TV in the past six months, you have doubtlessly seen Gas Networks Ireland’s animated advert proclaiming that they are “changing Ireland’s energy future thanks to ‘natural’ gas, and now we’re moving towards an even cleaner future with renewable gas.”
Behind the primary colours, soft guitar music and reassuring voiceover, you may notice that you have an uneasy feeling that what this advert is telling you is too good to be true. The truth is; it is.
Today we detail the fallacy of ‘natural’ and ‘renewable’ gas, and highlight why these terms are being used to hide increased fossil fuel use.
The Truth About ‘Clean’ Gas
A core tenet to solving the Climate Crisis is that we simply need to stop burning things.
Basic chemistry teaches us that when we burn carbon-based entities – including gas – we create carbon dioxide as a bi-product. Like coal or oil, gas is a fossil fuel and every single unit of it burned is worsening the Climate Crisis on a daily basis.
While burning gas produces around half as much CO2 as coal to produce the same amount of energy, and emits fewer pollutants that are harmful to human health, gas is in no way ‘clean’, as companies like Gas Networks Ireland claim.
In fact, climate scientists have been very clear that rising production of gas is emerging as one of the biggest drivers of the Climate Crisis.
A 2019 report by the Global Carbon Project – a UN-backed team of researchers – found that the world was on track to produce 70% more ‘natural’ gas in 2030 than would be compatible with the IPCC’s essential goal of keeping the average global temperature rise below 1.5°C.
Despite the bright colours and happy music, the Gas Network Ireland advert is simply promoting greenwashing. Note the presence of the data centre in the foreground - an industry driving massive increases in gas consumption. Credit: Gas Network Ireland
Rob Jackson, Professor at Stanford University and Chair of the Global Carbon Project, commented to Reuters: “Most of the new gas production isn’t supplanting coal – it’s supplementing it. It’s answering demand for new energy.”
In short, the supposed ‘greenness’ of so-called ‘natural’ gas has been propped up by Big Oil as a way for them to maintain the status quo, using their pipeline networks to continue making profits – and continue harmful emissions.
‘Renewable’ Gas
So, while it’s clear that fossil gas is far from being ‘clean’ and is, in fact, worsening the Climate Crisis, what about the prospect of so-called ‘renewable gas’?
Renewable gas is produced from the decay of biomass, capturing the gases that organic matter emits as it breaks down, before being supplemented to increase the methane concentration in order to make it produce the greatest amount of energy per unit when burned.
The concept of ‘renewable gas’ is the latest in a long line of misinformation campaigns from the fossil fuel industry, and threatens to worsen the Climate Crisis
Typical sources of biomass for renewable gas include manure from cattle, landfills and wastewater.
As such, the production of renewable gas is reliant on us continuing to farm and produce waste on a vast scale – as the production of biogas is not economically or practically feasible on a small scale.
This is where the hypocrisy of the term ‘renewable gas’ comes to the fore.
A true renewable source of energy is not depleted when used and comes from a natural and constant source – such as the sun, wind or waves.
So-called ‘renewable gas’ is only ‘renewable’ if we keep creating the unnecessary waste that supplies it. It is in no way renewable energy.
While advocates will tell you that this process reduces the amount of methane being released from cattle or landfill into the atmosphere, they neglect to tell you that the very act of burning gas of any sort – fossil or ‘renewable’ – releases vast amounts of greenhouse gases that worsen the Climate Crisis on a daily basis.
The 2021 IPCC Report could not be clearer: we need to decarbonise, we need to stop producing greenhouse gases on a vast scale, and we need to do it now.
We are so far beyond the point where we can compromise, with a transition to ‘renewable’ gas before then moving on to fully renewable technologies such as solar, wind and wave energy. That time has long passed, and any act to delay it will only worsen the Climate Crisis – resulting in the deaths of millions of people, and the displacement of billions more.
Not to mention the fact that renewable energy is considerably cheaper to build and maintain than fossil fuel sources.
It is for this reason that we believe Ireland must implement formal legislation to ban greenwashing and stop companies such as Gas Networks Ireland from using misleading terms and misinformation campaigns that lead well-intentioned people into worsening their carbon footprint.
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