LNG: Germany must insist on clean production
"Germany and the EU should urgently call for clean and low-emission natural gas production in countries such as Algeria, Qatar, Nigeria and the USA," says study director Daniel Münter, explaining the findings.
The report "Analysis of the greenhouse gas intensities of LNG imports to Germany", which has now been published, shows that it is primarily the emissions of the extremely potent climate gas methane that make LNG comparatively harmful to the climate. Methane is the main component of natural gas that is released during the production and transport of LNG.
The upstream chain reaches up to 50 % of the later emissions from combustion.
"The upstream chain - extraction, processing and transport - has always been part of the environmental impact of natural gas. With LNG, however, this section performs significantly worse than with pipeline gas from many other countries," Münter explains.
The CO2 emissions when gas is burned - for example in power plants or heating systems - are around 56 grams of CO2 equivalents per megajoule (gCO2e/MJ). For natural gas from Algeria, which could be delivered to Germany as LNG, the additional upstream emissions are around 27 gCO2e/MJ. LNG from the USA has an upstream chain burden of around 23 gCO2e/MJ and Qatar just under 18 gCO2e/MJ.
By comparison, the upstream chain for pipeline gas from Norway contributes only about 3 gCO2e/MJ.
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Contact
Daniel Münter
daniel.muenter@ifeu.de
+49 (0)6221 4767 664
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Axel Liebich
axel.liebich@ifeu.de
+49 (0)6221 4767 29
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