A $200bn wave of new gas projects could lead to a “climate bomb” equivalent to releasing the annual emissions of all the world’s operating coal power plants, according to a report.
Large banks have invested $213bn into plans to build terminals that export and import gas that is chilled and shipped on ocean tankers.
The report, by the climate group Reclaim Finance, found a sharp rise in projects to boost the global trade of gas in recent years, driven by a shift from coal to gas in developing countries and Russia’s war on Ukraine, which caused pipeline imports into Europe to dry up.
Due to methane leaks these terminals could produce an estimated 10 gigatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the decade, or almost as much as the annual emissions of all the coal plants in operation worldwide.
The International Energy Agency warned last month that the global LNG markets are heading towards an unprecedented glut of gas.
It warned that the world’s LNG capacity was on track to grow by almost 50% by 2030, greater than the world’s forecast demand for gas in all three of the agency’s modelled scenarios.
This glut is expected to lead to falling fossil fuel prices. The IEA has predicted that the price of gas imported into the EU is expected to plunge from a record average high of more than $70 (£54) per million British thermal units (MBtu) in 2022 to $6.50 (£5) by the end of the decade, following a boom in planned gas projects in recent years.