Comment on Government’s guidance to local authorities on shale gas
Richard Black says whether shale gas lowers carbon emissions depends on how it's extracted and how it's used.
By Peter Chalkley
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Commenting on the Department of Energy and Climate Change and Department of Communities and Local Government joint announcement on new guidance issued to local authorities on shale gas, Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said:
"The government says that we need shale gas as a source of low carbon energy, but whether it does lower carbon emissions depends on how it's extracted and how it's used.
"If shale gas replaces coal or oil that will reduce emissions, but if it slows the growth of renewables or nuclear that could put emissions up - and even for coal replacement, you only gain a carbon saving if leakage rates are kept to virtually zero.
"Just describing shale gas as 'low carbon' doesn't make it so, and the government ought to be making clear how it expects the gas to be used and what leakage rates it will allow."