‘Say No to LNG’ global campaign to be launched this year to counter pro-LNG narratives
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A global campaign, Say No to LNG, will be launched this year, aiming to counter pro-Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) narratives and ensure LNG is seen as a dead-end solution for policymakers, industry, and financial institutions, according to a WordPress page recently.
Campaigners said advocates of LNG as a marine fuel tout the benefits of LNG in considerably reducing sulfur and particulate pollution and cutting CO2 emissions during fuel combustion, hence argue that LNG is the only transition fuel available at scale today for reducing shipping CO2 emissions.
“The perception of LNG being clean and climate friendly, the relatively lower price of LNG (compared with conventional fuel before the global gas price hikes since mid 2021), and the increasing regulatory pressure on air and climate pollution from shipping, have led to a surge in newbuild orders of LNG-powered dual fuel vessels–about 30% of the gross tonnage in the current newbuilding orderbook being LNG dual-fuel or LNG-capable,” they said in the page, serving as a temporary website for the campaign.
“However, a growing body of literature shows that upstream methane leakage and high methane slip of some LNG-powered engines more than offset the CO2 emission benefits of LNG.”
The advocates behind the campaign said the momentum in building LNG-powered vessels and bunkering infrastructure, if undeterred, risks diverting scarce resources away from fuel and technology solutions that pave the way for truly zero-emission shipping, and locking us into GHG emissions associated with fossil LNG that make the transition to zero-emission solutions more difficult.
“The LNG campaign is initiated to amplify the message that LNG is unfit to reduce the shipping sector’s greenhouse gas emissions, and should be urgently ruled out in favour of zero-emission solutions,” they added.
The Campaign will be launched in 2023, and is composed of a growing coalition of organisations, academic institutions, community leaders and other key shipping stakeholders based in Europe, the US, Canada and the Arctic, and East and Southeast Asia.
“There is a short window where LNG is a threat to shipping decarbonization. The Campaign will keep this window closed to new LNG investments and the expansion of existing LNG projects,” the campaigners said.
Photo credit: william william on Unsplash
Published: 9 January, 2023
