Survey, Literature reflections, and Sustainability

          As I continue with my research, I am looking more in-depth into the futures of natural gas as a low carbon transitional bridge fuel. Previously in my research, I have been focusing on the effects of whether people think natural gas is a low carbon fuel and if it can be used as a bridge fuel.

          Now I am studying in detail the effects of natural gas in a long-term versus a short-term option. I am also looking at what benefits it condones to the environment and how it plays a part in the goal set by the United Nations Change Conference in 2015 to not exceed a global temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius (COP21, 2015). I want to learn at what cost does the bridge fuel become harmful or nonbeneficial for the climate, and what is the window that we have before we should start phasing out of such dependence on it and make the switch to renewables.

            Thus far, I am finding that natural gas will have the most beneficial environmental impacts if it is utilized as a short-term bridge fuel. A natural gas power plant has reduced carbon emissions by almost 50 percent when compared with a coal power plant (Safari, Das, Langhelle, Roy, & Assadi, 2019). However, this is only a small piece to the whole component because when natural gas is fracked, it leaks methane into the atmosphere which is a very dangerous pollutant. When methane(CH4) is leaked into the atmosphere, it has a very high GWP, 84-87, when looking at the impact within 20 years however, it only has a lifetime of about 12 years which makes it phase out of the atmosphere relatively quickly when compared to carbon dioxide (CO2) which lasts around 100 years (IPCC, 2013). This infers that while natural gas may have a low carbon emission rate now, this may not always be the case for a long-term future.

            In addition, I have found that some concerns surrounding natural gas is the pricing. In order to phase out of coal and into natural gas it must be a competitive price towards coal to make it worth it to privatized companies to invest their funds into it. Controversially, if natural gas becomes too affordable, it will delay the development of renewable energies because people will not see as it as an urgent investment that needs to be made.

            Through my survey findings, I have found that most people are unaware of these challenges within the United States where fracking is happening at exponential levels. Whereas in Germany, I had found most people were a little more informed in their country’s natural gas usage. The beneficial thing that I found in my survey results from both countries, United States and Germany, is that people knew a transition needed to happen from fossil fuels to renewable energy as timely as possible.

            My findings are relevant to sustainably under the understanding that 1/3 of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the electric power sector which is the largest GHG contributor in the United States (Mak, 2016). By not lowering our GHG emissions there will be a steady rise in the surface temperature of the earth which will lead to immense impacts on the environment.

            Fracking natural gas is not just a problem for the United States. Releasing CO2 into the atmosphere on a global level will have shared impacts all over the world. Countries all over the world need to start being accountable for the pollutants they are putting into the atmosphere and investing more strongly into renewable energy if they want to reach their goals set by COP21.

Natural gas: A transition fuel for sustainable energy system transformation?

Resources

 COP21. (2015). Report of the Conference of the Parties on its twenty-first session, held in Paris from 30 November to 13 December 2015 . Framework Convention on Climate Change (pp. 1-36). Paris: United Nations. Retrieved from United Nations Change Climate : https://unfccc.int/most-requested/key-aspects-of-the-paris-agreement

IPCC. (2013, April 11). Understanding Global Warming Potentials. Retrieved from United States Environmental Protection Agency: https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/understanding-global-warming-potentials

Mak, Y. F. (2016, October 26). Conditions for Natural Gas to Become an Effective Bridge Fuel to a Low-Carbon Future. Cambridge, MASSACHUSETTS, UNited States: MIT.

Safari, A., Das, N., Langhelle, O., Roy, J., & Assadi, M. (2019). Natural gas: A transition fuel for sustainable energy system transformation? Energy Science and Engineering , 1075-1094.