An environmental advocacy, Global Energy Monitor has warned that the world risks failing to achieve its net-zero carbon emissions ambitions by mid-century if natural gas pipeline projects long enough to go around the world four times – with nearly a third in China – are not stopped.
If global warming is to be limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100 from pre-industrial levels, Global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions need to reach net-zero by 2050.
Fossil fuels demand will also peak by 2025 globally, if all national net-zero emission pledges are implemented in full and on time, according to an International Energy Agency (IEA), forecast.
According to Global Energy Monitor (GEM), which catalogs fossil fuel and renewable energy projects worldwide, Of the nearly 193,400 kilometres of pipeline being built or in pre-construction development globally, about 56,100km are in China.
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Its report found that cancellations and delays in some parts of the world were offset by rapid expansion elsewhere, especially in Asia.
It also found that China’s pipeline projects were three times that of second-placed India, which had 18,400km of pipelines.
“A massive expansion of the global gas pipeline network threatens climate goals and creates a US$485.8 billion ‘stranded asset risk’,” the San Francisco-based non-governmental organization said on Tuesday.
“This expansion is occurring despite the International Energy Agency [IEA] warning that gas usage must peak within the next few years and that the world must quickly transition from fossil fuels to renewables.”
GEM said that the projects, including those worth US$89.1 billion in China, will be exposed to stranded asset risk since fossil fuels are to be phased out in the coming decades as the world transitions to a low-carbon energy future.
Story was adapted from South China Morning Post.
