Santos has welcomed a report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that confirms there is robust evidence and high agreement that “GHG emissions from energy supply can be reduced significantly by replacing current world average coal-fired power plants with modern, highly efficient natural gas combined-cycle power plants or combined heat and power plants.”
While the IPCC recognises that Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) may also play a role in enabling coal to be a part of a low carbon future, natural gas can have an impact right now.
Santos has been providing natural gas safely and securely in Australia for 60 years and because of the global need for energy – especially in the Asia-Pacific – has grown into a regional energy company with new and established projects in PNG, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Increasingly, Asian economies are turning to natural gas to meet their rapidly growing energy needs while reducing their carbon footprint.
The Curtis Island LNG plant near Gladstone, Queensland, alone will provide nine per cent of the entire gas requirements of South Korea, and 11 per cent of Malaysia’s.
Santos states that natural gas is already cutting global emissions and the US – a massive energy consumer – provides a real example of what is possible. At the end of 2012, US carbon emissions were the lowest they had been since 1994, during a period in which its population has grown by 60 million people, and use of energy-hungry devices like smart phones and plasma TVs has rocketed.
They have achieved this primarily because electricity production in the US has become cleaner. One third of that transition to cleaner electricity was due to an increase in renewable and nuclear power whereas two thirds was due to fuel switching to natural gas.
Natural gas is available, abundant, and cleaner. Its benefits and sustainability are backed by science.
Increasing use of natural gas can make immediate inroads into our emissions intensity, says Santos.
