Gas a critical part of delivering a sustainable energy future

In an exclusive studio interview, Chiranjib Sengupta sat down with Andrea Stegher, Vice President at the International Gas Union (IGU), to explore how the organisation is supporting the sustainable development of the gas industry. Highlighting the need to move from targets to actionable steps in implementing the energy transition, Andrea called for deploying all potential solutions in the journey ahead and explained why gas is a critical part of the delivering an affordable, secure and sustainable energy future. He also spoke about the importance of acknowledging that there’s not just one energy transition and one solution and being conscious of the different backdrops and conditions across the world.

What are your thoughts on the pace of progress that we are seeing for the global energy transition?

It is of course, an important question here, and I think we are in the need to progress faster and deeper. What I mean by this, is the fact that we have possibly to move from targets to actionable steps, where we have to deploy all potential solutions, where we do think as the IGU, gas is a part of this solution.

In general, how can the gas sector help accelerate the decarbonisation of global energy systems?

There are two parallel challenges, if you wish. The first one is where we have to continuously meet energy demand increase. According to the International Energy Agency, last year, 40% of global incremental demand was met by natural gas, the number one source. And at the same time, we have to keep the trajectory towards reducing emissions which is not still the case unfortunately because coal is still very important in that respect. So gas, with all the technologies, I mean natural gas plus all green gases and solutions, are to keep pace and accelerate.

You also made a very important point about the ecosystem not just being about natural gas. Could you expand on that?

I would say that the industry is in transition since many years. I would say that it's important to see new solutions by biomethane, hydrogen, whatever colour, allow me, CCUS, e-methane, and solutions that progressively are reducing also methane emissions. So, there is a vast array of options where we have not to ban solutions, but we have to have the optionality as wide as possible. That's where the gas industry is looking at actionable solutions now.

The IGU in its Manifesto that you're very passionate about has advocated a lot of solutions.

Indeed, the Manifesto is making clear that we are serving for making human progress and social growth at the centre of our industry proposition. I think here is the essence of the fact that the gas industry is delivering energy to the world. And we will be striving to continue doing better and more, for making again consumers of today and tomorrow happily having affordable, secure and sustainable energy.

When you talk about that kind of scenario I know along with the advocacy and the manifesto, what kind of long-term policy support would you look out for to ensure that gas has its fair play in the system?

I think here we have to avoid using terms like transitional or destination. I think we have to open the doors to have more meaningful conversations with policymakers, financial institutions, stakeholders at large, which is the background of the IGU, to create again dialogue among these parties to have the best possible solutions. And here we have to be mindful of the fact that we have not one transition, not one solution. We have to be conscious of the different backdrops, endowments, and conditions in the different regions of the world.