Call it making the ‘business case’ for natural gas.Instead of shutting down its oil and gas sector — or any other sector — Canada would do well to help other countries reduce their reliance on coal for power generation by increasing exports of natural gas.That’s according to a new analysis by the National Bank of Canada (NBC), which suggests this country could offset as much as 400% of its own emissions and play an “outsized” environmental role simply by helping countries such as India reduce their reliance on coal..In a paper entitled Taking the Global View, NBC argues that merely eliminating Canada’s own 1.5% of emissions is “futile in deleveraging the global environmental balance sheet as a direct result of other countries increasing their absolute share by orders of magnitude more.”“Emissions are global, they are not bound by geographical boundaries, as such, we propose to reorient the conversation with a global tilt,” wrote authors Baltej Sidhu and Anh Le, who noted the present Liberal government has insisted there is no compelling business case for increasing exports of cleaner burning liquified natural gas to countries such as Germany and Japan.Except in this case, it’s India, which has announced plans to double coal production to 1.5 billion tonnes by 2030 to accommodate population growth on the order of 12 million people per year.“Displacing coal-fired generation with natural gas could avoid about two to four times Canada's emissions profile over the forecast period. In other words, it has a more profound impact on the planet than a complete shutdown of the Canadian economy,” they wrote..About 74% of India’s power comes from coal compared to just 3% from natural gas. In addition to emissions, coal-powered generation consumes vast quantities of water which aren’t factored into any equation of environmental issues. The report suggests coal-fired power accounts for half of the country’s water requirements.The report suggests that LNG exports on the order of six billion cubic feet per day — about a third of Canada’s existing production — would be enough to more than offset its entire emissions by a factor of two to four times.“Canadian natural gas, with its preferential policy and environmental characteristics… could have an outsized impact on the Asia-Pacific market by addressing the rise in global emissions by displacing more carbon-intensive fuels.“Overall, Canada can play a critical role in reducing emissions from the use of higher-emitting fuels. While Ottawa once concluded that there was “no business case” for supporting Germany and then Japan, we clearly see a compelling case for working with India to limit its emissions profile. We hope this time will be different.”
Call it making the ‘business case’ for natural gas.Instead of shutting down its oil and gas sector — or any other sector — Canada would do well to help other countries reduce their reliance on coal for power generation by increasing exports of natural gas.That’s according to a new analysis by the National Bank of Canada (NBC), which suggests this country could offset as much as 400% of its own emissions and play an “outsized” environmental role simply by helping countries such as India reduce their reliance on coal..In a paper entitled Taking the Global View, NBC argues that merely eliminating Canada’s own 1.5% of emissions is “futile in deleveraging the global environmental balance sheet as a direct result of other countries increasing their absolute share by orders of magnitude more.”“Emissions are global, they are not bound by geographical boundaries, as such, we propose to reorient the conversation with a global tilt,” wrote authors Baltej Sidhu and Anh Le, who noted the present Liberal government has insisted there is no compelling business case for increasing exports of cleaner burning liquified natural gas to countries such as Germany and Japan.Except in this case, it’s India, which has announced plans to double coal production to 1.5 billion tonnes by 2030 to accommodate population growth on the order of 12 million people per year.“Displacing coal-fired generation with natural gas could avoid about two to four times Canada's emissions profile over the forecast period. In other words, it has a more profound impact on the planet than a complete shutdown of the Canadian economy,” they wrote..About 74% of India’s power comes from coal compared to just 3% from natural gas. In addition to emissions, coal-powered generation consumes vast quantities of water which aren’t factored into any equation of environmental issues. The report suggests coal-fired power accounts for half of the country’s water requirements.The report suggests that LNG exports on the order of six billion cubic feet per day — about a third of Canada’s existing production — would be enough to more than offset its entire emissions by a factor of two to four times.“Canadian natural gas, with its preferential policy and environmental characteristics… could have an outsized impact on the Asia-Pacific market by addressing the rise in global emissions by displacing more carbon-intensive fuels.“Overall, Canada can play a critical role in reducing emissions from the use of higher-emitting fuels. While Ottawa once concluded that there was “no business case” for supporting Germany and then Japan, we clearly see a compelling case for working with India to limit its emissions profile. We hope this time will be different.”
