Ten years after COP21 and its commitment to try to limit the temperature increase to 2°Celsius in 2100, it is clear that the consumption of energy in the world continues to increase and that the consumption of fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) whose combustion is the main source of greenhouse gases is also increasing. In 2024 energy consumption in the world increased by 2%, oil consumption by 1%, coal consumption by 1% and gas consumption by 3%. The 2015 target may therefore be difficult to achieve.

Among fossil fuels, natural gas has undeniable advantages: it is low-polluting and its combustion emits much less carbon dioxide than the combustion of oil and coal. In addition, the technology of combined cycle gas power plants makes it possible to achieve much higher efficiency than that of other plants.

Finally, with the rapid development of wind and solar power generation, it is imperative to have alternatives when the wind falls and the sun goes down. Gas-fired power plants have the advantage of starting very quickly, unlike coal-fired power plants, for example.

Rapid development of natural gas

Gas: Transition energy? This formula, invented by the International Energy Agency around 2010, means that gas, by replacing coal and oil, could lead to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in a slowdown in climate change, the effects of which are increasingly visible (fires, floods, coastal erosion).

While gas consumption in large European countries and Japan, for example, is falling sharply, it is increasing very rapidly in China and India, where electricity production is mainly based on coal, which is very polluting. The use of gas is therefore a priority for replacing – partly – coal.

The situation in Europe

In Europe city gas, obtained by pyrolysis of coal, was gradually replaced by natural gas from the 1950s. The discoveries of Lacq gas in France from Groningen to the Netherlands and then imports from Algeria and finally Russia allowed this development of consumption.

It took a coordinated and vigorous action by Margareth Thatcher and François Mitterrand to obtain from Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, access to the American technologies necessary for the construction of gas pipelines which were to transport the natural gas from the immense fields of the Yamal peninsula in Siberia to Europe. The first gas pipelines were transiting through Ukraine before the deterioration of relations between Russia and Ukraine induced Russians to build the North Stream submarine gas pipeline, which directly supplied Europe from the St Petersburg region via the Baltic.

The invasion of Ukraine led Russia to decrease and then stop the bulk of its gas supplies, which by 2020 accounted for almost 40% of European consumption. As a result of this decision: gas prices were multiplied by a factor of 10 in 2022 leading to a similar increase in the price of electricity on international markets

However, the situation has rapidly returned to normal thanks to additional supplies from Norway, especially the United States, but also to reduced demand and the development of renewables.

Conclusion

Natural gas occupies a unique place: it guarantees the stability of the current system while being the fuel that must be learned to do without it. At the global level, there is still an engine for coal growth and output. In Europe its consumption must decrease to the benefit of renewable gases (biogas obtained by methanisation) in order to meet climate commitments. The challenge for the next five years will be to achieve this technological change without sacrificing the continent's economic competitiveness.