EASAC’s Report on the Future of Gas
Natural gas is not cleaner than other fossil fuels, and using it instead of coal or oil would lead to little or no reduction in greenhouse gas effects, concludes the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (EASAC) in its recently published report “The Future of Gas”. In the EASAC working group preparing the document, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences was represented by Professor Attila Imre, Doctor of MTA, and Head of Department of Energy Engineering in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME).
The report highlights the huge impact that methane leakages, which occur throughout the whole natural gas supply chain but are largely untracked, could have on global warming. In order to mitigate climate change, it is essential that the use of all fossil fuels be stopped out, a phase-out of the installation of new natural gas boilers be introduced and renewable electricity production be accelerated.
The report recommends the installation of heat pumps and district heating as a ready-to-use and climate-friendly alternative to gas boilers. The potential of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and nuclear plants is also discussed, but the report warns that the current technology does not allow carbon storage capacity to be expanded or nuclear plants to be built quickly enough to keep climate change under control.
The report was prepared by EASAC’s Energy Steering Panel. In the working group responsible for the document, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences was represented by Professor Attila Imre, Doctor of MTA, and Head of the Department of Energy Engineering in BME’s Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.
The full version of EASAC’s report “The Future of Gas” is available here.