Eurogas Calls for Binding Renewable Gas Targets
European gas lobby group Eurogas wants the European Commission to introduce a binding target for renewable and decarbonised gases in the forthcoming Gas Package.
The organisation's new head, James Watson, said in a statement January 8: “The target should be based on the existing European Union renewable energy target and would help the EU to achieve a higher share of renewable energy at lower cost."
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He said Eurogas also supported carbon capture and storage (CCS) as one of the key enabling technologies to achieve a low-carbon economy. Scaling up of CCS will further unlock the long-term decarbonisation potential of natural gas, he said.
CCS has been very slow to take off, despite being a key plank of most scenarios, including the International Energy Agency's, whereby the world achieves the temperature reduction goal that has been agreed during the UN COP process. The higher price of emissions trading certificates in the EU market today is likely to help in that regard: there are several CCS projects in the UK that are being considered for development whose commercial viability will depend on carbon having a high value, rather than on subsidies, to cover the huge investment cost.
Gas already offers quick wins for the energy transition to a clean energy future, Watson said. The recent Eurogas study using EU modelling tool Primes showed that switching from coal to gas in power generation would enable the EU to surpass its greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 40% by an additional 5% by 2030.
Watson said: "Gas is indispensable in meeting deep decarbonisation targets and can drive the energy transition by combining the advantages of electricity and gas through sector integration. This is the best way to create a sustainable, low-carbon energy system.”