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Amsterdam – Gas companies are driving government policies that are locking the US and Europe in dangerous new commitments for liquefied natural gas (LNG). Public investment in private operators like Fluxys in Belgium shows the extent of US and European betrayal of global climate goals, while harming the health of neighboring communities living near manufacturing sites in the US.
These are among the most important insights uncovered in a Greenpeace International investigation released today. These plans are the result of European gas operators contracted to both advise and build new infrastructure. The organization calls for an immediate end to US and European development of gas contracts and infrastructure.⟮1⟯
Anusha Narayanan, head of Greenpeace's global project in the US to halt fossil fuel expansion, said: "The gas industry – producers and operators – has used the war between Russia and Ukraine to twist US and European policy priorities away from climate goals with stories about energy security. US and European leaders should not be fooled. Citizens have voted for transformative climate protection. Governments must be leaders in the fight against climate and not be fooled by gas operators who sacrifice community health and safety just to increase profits.”
"Our research uncovers the truth behind the corporate and political push for more fossil gas imports from the US to European countries: the bottom line is that fossil gas only benefits industry, it's dirty, toxic, unnecessary and undesirable. "
In the report "Who Benefits from the War - How gas companies benefit from the war in Ukraine"Greenpeace International has exposed the boom in US LNG imports to the EU in 2022. In this historic year, the EU has become the largest importer of LNG from the United States, and energy companies across the EU and the US are doubling their LNG investments. By analyzing the whole story, Greenpeace International shows how the short-term energy supply crisis was answered by a long-term response in building new infrastructure that impacts the environment and local communities in the US and EU and negotiating permanent contracts.
If the EU LNG terminals under construction or proposed went into production, this would potentially result in a whopping 950 million tonnes of CO2e per year associated with those terminals. That corresponds to the annual emissions of 211 million cars.⟮2⟯ This would seriously jeopardize the energy transition necessary to achieve the agreed climate targets.
This new gas infrastructure would undermine US, EU and world climate goals. UN Secretary-General Antonió Guterres recently stated that both blocs must achieve carbon neutrality by 2040. This requires a rapid decline in fossil gas consumption, which would reduce recently built and planned gas infrastructure to sunk assets.⟮3⟯ A recent publication by the International Energy Agency (IEA) revealed that fossil gas demand in the European Union in by 2022 billion cubic meters in 55, the steepest drop in history, underscoring the pointlessness of port expansion. ⟮4⟯
The report also highlights the significant health and safety implications this expansion is having on communities. European countries have banned methods like fracking at home, but encourage these methods in the US to meet their energy needs. The extraction and transportation of toxic LNG in Texas, New Mexico, and Louisiana has resulted in deteriorating air quality, contaminated water, respiratory diseases, childbirth problems, and increased cancer rates in these communities, many of which are predominantly Black, Brown, Indigenous, and a small have income.
John Beard, a community attorney who lives adjacent to the largest US export terminal Sabine Pass LNG, a terminal under construction Golden Pass LNG and the Port Arthur LNG project (all within a 10km radius), said: "These LNG projects will lead to a massive increase in CO2 emissions. This would have disastrous consequences for the planet and people. There is no "freedom" gas. It comes with a cost. Those costs are the lives and health of the people of the Gulf of the South and deadly climate impacts worldwide."
Greenpeace calls on the EU institutions, the US and national governments:
- Make EU and national gas reduction targets binding, implement measures to protect vulnerable communities and increase public investment in renewable energy, efficiency and renovation programs;
- Ban on all development of new gas projects and new gas wells with the aim of phasing out fossil gas immediately by May 2035, XNUMX at the latest (EU target);
- phase out all new permanent LNG terminals and ban all new projects and expansions in all EU countries and the US;
- ban all long-term gas contracts;
- stop approving new infrastructure projects and new deliveries;
- abolish fossil fuel subsidies;
- End preferential treatment of interest in fossil fuels and resolve conflicts of interest in climate and energy policy.
For detailed US and EU inquiries, go to Summary in our report.
Notes
⟮1⟯ Between 2013 and 2020, Europe spent €4,5 billion on 44 new gas infrastructure projects, with 90 percent of the money going to members of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG), which has consistently overestimated future gas demand. See our report, box: “Gas operators lead the dance”.
⟮2⟯ European consumers pay exorbitant costs for US gas, both due to high production and transportation costs and price volatility in world markets. Europeans also pay for it through subsidies, tax breaks, subsidized loans, bailouts and publicly funded infrastructure contracted out to fossil fuel companies. These senseless handouts enabled record revenues in the oil and gas industry - as confirmed by a new study by Prof. Aviel Verbruggen of the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and former lead author of an intergovernmental panel on climate change Message - nearly tripled its profits over the past year while leaving ordinary people with sky-high energy bills. In peak season, a single shipment of LNG from the US to Europe could bring in $200 million (€182,4 million) in profit.
Sources: Global Energy Monitor, Europe Gas Tracker report (2023); EPA and GHG Equivalency Calculator; Climate Watch, historical greenhouse gas emissions
⟮3⟯ Since the eighth Energy Council between the United States and the EU Commission in 2018, US LNG exports to Europe and the UK increased by 1749%, and US LNG imports to Europe increased by 2022 in 28,8 .2021 bn in 68,96 to 3 bcm in 2022, an increase of 140%. However, gas demand in Europe has not increased and is expected to decrease. But even in a business-as-usual scenario with steady EU gas demand, the new developments are redundant. See our report, chapters “Europe becomes first customer for US LNG” and “Unneeded lock-in”.
And https://www.politico.eu/article/us-supply-natural-gas-lng-eu-antony-blinken/
⟮4⟯ Europe's Energy Crisis: What Factors Driven Record Fall in Natural Gas Demand in 2022?International Energy Agency (IEA), March 14, 2023
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Photos: Greenpeace
