Fracking could have significant implications for UK climate targets

ECIU Director Richard Black comments on Environmental Audit Committee report

By George Smeeton

info@eciu.net

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Fracking for shale gas could have significant implications for the UK’s climate change targets, says Richard Black, Director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU).

Fracking on the Haynesville Shale near Shreveport, Louisiana. Image: Creative Commons Licence, Daniel Foster

The Environmental Audit Committee, in a report published today (26 January) on fracking, concludes it is ‘incompatible with the UK’s climate change targets and could pose significant localised environmental risks to public health’. The Committee calls for a national moratorium on shale drilling.

Richard Black said: “The shale gas debate has been taking place as though it were completely unrelated to our climate change commitments. Obviously the two things are intimately related, and the Committee has done an excellent job of joining the dots.

“The Committee is completely correct to say that if UK shale gas plays a major role in our electricity generation, that would have significant implications for our climate change targets.

“It could be useful in other applications, however – but before promoting the industry, ministers really ought to do some proper thinking about where shale gas can be used within carbon budgets, and where it cannot.”