At a high level conference today on financing Europe’s shift to clean energy, EU energy chiefs once again showed blindness to the danger to the climate of Europe’s gas addiction.
The high level conference featuring several European Commissioners, the President of the European Parliament, and renewable industry bosses, came on the same day as a new study by Friends of the Earth Europe showing fossil fuels, including natural gas, can have no substantial role beyond 2035 in an EU energy system compatible with limiting global warming to 2°C. [2] For 1.5°C, gas and other fossil fuels would need to be phased-out even faster.
Commenting on the conference, Colin Roche, extractive industries campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe said: “High level thinking on how to finance the energy transition is welcome and overdue, but these discussions are set against a background of fossil fuel addiction.
“The EU continues to invest billions in fossil fuels, notably gas infrastructure, which will lock us in to dirty energy until long after we need to be fossil free. The oil and gas industry is succeeding in painting gas as green, but science shows there is absolutely no room for gas in the energy transition. Gas is not not a bridge to the energy transition, it’s a bridge to nowhere.
“To transform its energy system to align with the temperature commitments of the Paris agreement, the EU must phase out of all fossil fuels including natural gas within the coming two decades.
25 years after UNFCCC why is fossil fuel industry at #CleanEnergyEU? #NoRoomForGas #kickpollutersout pic.twitter.com/zCmwwBkOrg
— Colin Roche (@ColinRoche) November 7, 2017
