New IEA Report on Liquified Natural Gas Emissions Regurgitates Old Fallacies

In response to the International Energy Agency (IEA)’s just-released report on the greenhouse gas emissions of liquefied natural gas (LNG), Oil Change International Research Director Lorne Stockman said: 

“This latest IEA report repeats the decade-old fallacy that the LNG industry is on the cusp of cleaning up its act, even though it has consistently refused to do so. The methane reductions that are supposed to result from a suite of new technologies and a slew of industry-led voluntary initiatives have failed to materialize again and again. The IEA’s own Methane Tracker data shows that the oil and gas industry’s methane emissions are massive and growing, and “have still not reached a definitive peak.” While the IEA attempts to downplay the life-cycle GHG emissions of LNG compared to coal, The IEA’s own modelling also clearly shows that there is no room for any new LNG export projects if the world is to stave off climate disaster.  

“The IEA estimates that 80.5 million metric tons of methane were emitted from the global oil and gas industry in 2024, while highlighting that “methane emissions are widely underreported.” In the short term (20-year equivalency), this equates to over 6.4 billion tons of CO2. This is like adding nearly 1,700 US coal plants. 

“It is beyond time that the IEA, the oil and gas industry, and enabling governments such as Japan and the US stop spreading misinformation about gas. The only way to reduce emissions from oil and gas, and the toxic pollution they spread into communities’ air and water, is to phase out fossil fuel production and use. We have waited too long. The planet is literally burning while the oil and gas industry fiddles.”