WIREDGOV

Responding to a report published last week by the Energy and Climate Change Committee on shale gas in the UK, WWF expressed dismay that the report appeared not to acknowledge the fundamental incoherence between exploiting shale gas and tackling climate change.

WWF said that the report also plays down concerns about the impact of shale gas on the natural environment many of which are legitimate and backed up by scientific evidence from the US.

Jenny Banks, energy specialist at WWF-UK said: “The committee should recognise the incompatibility of exploiting shale gas and tackling climate change.

“There's a hard truth that we need to face up to on fossil fuels; it's simply impossible to keep global warming below 2°C and burn all known fossil fuel reserves – let alone exploit unconventional reserves like shale gas.

“In other words, the climate impacts on new fossil fuel developments must be front and centre of any decision on shale gas, not a secondary concern. Continuing this doublethink will lead to poor policy decisions.”

WWF said that global fossil fuel reserves are already huge, and therefore the vast majority of unconventional fossil fuels need to stay in the ground. A recent report by Carbon Tracker and LSE 2 showed that between 60-80% of coal, oil and gas reserves of publicly listed companies are ‘unburnable’ if the world is to have a chance of not exceeding global warming of 2°C.

Jenny Banks continued: “The Committee is also absolutely right to caution against basing energy policy on the assumption that gas prices will fall in future. The International Energy Agency predicts gas price rises out to 2035 even in its ‘dash for unconventional gas scenario’ 3. Basing policy on the assumption that there will be plentiful cheap gas in the future would be a huge and irresponsible gamble at the UK consumer’s expense.

“The UK would be far better off directing its efforts to develop its position as a leader in offshore wind, which reports show could give the UK a £20bn GDP advantage compared to relying heavily on gas over the period to 2030 4.”

Notes to editors:

1. The report by Energy and Climate Change Committee, the Impact of Shale Gas on Energy Markets, is published on 26 April 2013.

2. Carbon Tracker and the LSE Grantham Research Institute: Unburnable carbon 2013: Wasted capital and stranded assets http://www.carbontracker.org/wastedcapital

3. IEA, Golden Rules for a Golden Age of Gas, May 2012

4. Cambridge Econometrics: A study into the economics of gas and offshore wind (30 November 2012): http://www.wwf.org.uk/wwf_articles.cfm?unewsid=6342

For more information:

George Smeeton, Media Relations Manager WWF-UK
Tel: 01483 412 388, Mob: 07917 052 948, email: GSmeeton@wwf.org.uk