The world is decarbonising with natural gas and renewables, but is this a coordinated effort?

Whilst the use of clean energy is growing, this growth is being offset by the persistence of coal and flaring. New gas technologies have the potential to help address this.

By Emilio Weber*

In 2019, global primary energy production grew by 1.32%, or approximately 7.7 exajoules (EJ), compared to 2018¹. Renewables and natural gas saw the biggest increase in absolute terms with 3.15 EJ and 2.79 EJ respectively. This means that 77% of primary energy growth was driven by renewables and natural gas. Coal saw the greatest reduction compared to 2018, reducing by almost 1 EJ in absolute terms, 0.5% less over the global energy mix.

Variation in the global primary energy mix (2018-2019)

Source: BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2020, 69th Edition

We can, therefore, say that we are on the right path. We have managed to increase the consumption of renewables and natural gas whilst reducing coal consumption, which is one of the main contributors to the increase of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere. However, if we look at the results by region, we can still see some problems.

We need a coordinated effort for effective decarbonisation

In 2019, the Asia and Pacific region was responsible for 50% of global CO₂ emissions and its contribution increased by 406.2 million tonnes (+2.4%) compared with the previous year. North America and Europe, on the other hand, managed to reduce their emissions by 308.4 million tonnes. As we can see, regional efforts are not coordinated.

CO₂ emissions by region (2018-2019)

Source: BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2020, 69th Edition – * Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan **US, Canada, Mexico

In Asia, despite having cleaner resources available or the option of importing liquefied natural gas (LNG), electricity generation from coal increased by 2.6 EJ compared to 2018.

In China, the total energy increase was 5.9 EJ (76.6% of the global increase of 7.7 EJ). However, this increase was mainly derived from coal (31%), contributing 1.84 EJ, followed by oil (22%), with 1.33 EJ. Meanwhile, natural gas contributed just 0.88 EJ (15%), renewables, 0.82 EJ (14%), hydroelectric energy, 0.59 EJ (10%) and lastly, nuclear energy contributed 0.47 EJ (8%).

Two other Asian countries that have relied on coal for energy growth were Indonesia and Vietnam. Indonesia increased its energy production by 0.69 EJ and coal contributed 83% of this growth (0.57 EJ). Meanwhile, Vietnam increased energy production by 0.4 EJ, but energy derived from coal actually exceeded this by 0.08 EJ since it also increased to replace hydroelectric energy.

Unlike China, which should increase its importation of LNG, Vietnam and Indonesia have an excess of natural gas resources. In 2019, Indonesia flared 2 billion cubic metres (BCM) of natural gas, 0.10 EJ, which is equivalent to roughly the entire annual natural gas consumption of Hong Kong² or a good part of the annual consumption in many European countries. As a result, not only is energy being wasted but CO₂ emissions are increasing. The same thing is happening in Malaysia, which flared 2.37 BCM (0.12 EJ).

Satellite view of the flaring emissions in southeast Asia. Source: https://skytruth.org/

The role of LNG and Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) in the transition towards cleaner energy

In conclusion, whilst we can say that the current trend is a positive one, there is a need for more international coordination if we are to successfully transition towards clean energy. Today, this is possible because we have the technologies to do it, now that the treatment of gas and small-scale LNG production has become mobile, portable and scalable.

This means that these technologies can be useful for the capture of gas flaring in unconnected wells, making it possible to eliminate a source of pollution and provide an alternative energy source to coal. These technologies can also be applied to the production of renewable natural gas, which can be obtained using organic waste from industrial and urban processes, providing an alternative energy source whilst capturing carbon at the same time.

*The author is the Commercial Vice-president at Galileo Technologies for Asia and the Pacific

Notes:

[1] British Petroleum, BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2020, 69th Edition, 2020.
[2] World Bank, Global Gas Flaring Tracker Report, July 2020.