LNG 33% Worse for Climate Than Coal Over 20-Year Period, Groundbreaking Research Reveals

The groundbreaking study concluded that Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) has a far larger climate impact than any other fossil fuel, including the dirtiest of all, coal.

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Exported gas generates far more greenhouse gas emissions than coal, despite the fossil fuel industry depicting the former as a cleaner alternative, new scientific evidence has shown.

In its new peer-reviewed study, American ecosystem scientist Robert Howarth concluded that Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) has a larger climate impact than any other planet-warming fossil fuel, including the dirtiest of all, coal.

Coal, the cheapest and dirtiest fossil fuel, is the single-largest source of carbon emissions, responsible for over 0.3C of the 1.2C increase in global average temperatures since the Industrial Revolution. It is also a major contributor to air pollution. 

But Howarth’s research came to the conclusion that LNG is 33% worse in terms of greenhouse gas emissions over a 20-year period compared to coal, when accounting for its life-cycle emissions. Indeed, about two-thirds of the total emissions occur before the final burning of gas to power homes and businesses.

Contributing to this is the sheer amount of methane emissions associated with LNG, which is predominantly made up of methane. Methane traps around 80 times the heat carbon dioxide (CO2) does over 20 years, dropping to 28-34 times over a century.

Gas venting and fugitive emissions are the main cause of methane emissions. Gas venting is a practice that pumps out unwanted gas to maintain safe conditions in the oil and gas extraction process. While gas venting is a deliberate methane release, fugitive emissions are unintentional releases of gas across the fossil fuel supply system. The majority of the methane escape comes from downstream processes, which include refining, transmission, and distribution of gaseous products.      

So, even though burning coal generates greater CO2 emissions than burning natural gas, the latter’s methane emissions can “more than offset this difference,” according to the study.

Published Thursday in Energy Science & Engineering, the study looked at the greenhouse gas footprint of LNG exports from the US, currently the world’s largest exporter of the fuel.

Gas exports were prohibited in the US until 2016. But as of 2023, seven years after the ban was lifted, the country accounted for 21% of global LNG exports. Based on previous evidence of the potential footprint of gas exports, the Biden administration in January placed a moratorium on increasing exports of LNG, pending further scientific evidence of the shipments’ impact.

“This pause on new LNG approvals sees the climate crisis for what it is: the existential threat of our time,” a White House statement read. In July, a federal judge halted the moratorium.

According to Howarth, around half of total emissions associated with LNG production occur when gas is transported through pipelines to coastal terminals after it is drilled, though other stages of production, including cooling and shipping, also contribute a great deal.

Notably, emissions from tanker transport account for 5.5% of the total emissions, with modern tankers surprisingly showing higher greenhouse gas emissions than steam-powered ones due to methane slippage in exhaust.

“The science is pretty clear here: it’s wishful thinking that the gas miraculously moves overseas without any emissions,” Howarth told The Guardian.

“To think we should be shipping around this gas as a climate solution is just plain wrong. It’s greenwashing from oil and gas companies that has severely underestimated the emissions from this type of energy.”