The Government should not relax its policy on liquefied natural gas (LNG) to support its importation from the US, leading climate and energy experts have warned.
In a letter to Taoiseach Micheál Martin this week, the group of academics said a policy relaxation would not increase Ireland’s energy security and would instead prolong the use of polluting fossil fuels and undermine Ireland’s climate obligations.
The Taoiseach in early February said Ireland “will have to have an LNG facility of some kind”. He said he had spoken to the Department of the Environment to progress the issue. The department is preparing a memo for Government, with a final decision due within weeks.
The letter, seen by The Irish Times, is cosigned by prominent US climatologist Prof Michael Mann. Other signatories are: Prof Hannah Daly (UCC); Dr Cara Augustenborg (UCD); Prof Karen Wiltshire (TCD); Prof John Sweeney (MU); Prof Jennie Stephens (MU); Dr Diarmuid Torney (DCU); Prof Barry McMullin (DCU); Prof John Barry (QUB); Dr James Carton (DCU); Dr Patrick Bresnihan (MU); and Prof Lisa Ryan (UCD).
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The academics say a move towards LNG is contrary to the new programme for government, which reaffirms the State’s aim of rapidly reducing fossil fuel dependence.
“Achieving this objective is essential to meeting our climate obligations, protecting our economic competitiveness, and ensuring societal wellbeing,” the experts say.
The group calls on the Government to base any energy security policy on “independent and transparent evidence of the economic, environmental, and security implications of LNG”. This approach should be applied particularly where infrastructure is commercially operated and could result in the importation of fracked gas, the signatories say.
This research should assess gas demand trends, energy system resilience, climate risks and clean energy alternatives, they say.
“Any energy security measure involving new gas infrastructure must come with strict safeguards that ensure it does not conflict with the Government’s commitment to radically reduce fossil fuel reliance and meet legally binding carbon budgets.”
They highlight the Government’s 2023 energy security plan, which concluded “the best way to address lack of resilience in our natural gas infrastructure in the event of a major supply disruption is to lower natural gas demand and establish a strategic gas emergency reserve, in a way that is compatible with the Climate Law”.
[ Move to fracked gas ‘will not give Ireland energy security’, conference toldOpens in new window ]
Mr Martin cited energy security as justification for the proposal, which is predicted to cost hundreds of millions of euro in fossil fuel imports and associated infrastructure. He noted Ireland does not have enough domestically produced conventional gas and is overly reliant on UK supplies.
Traditionally, energy security focuses on securing the physical supply of fossil fuels, the expert group says, but a comprehensive strategy for energy security should “also consider exposure to volatile fossil fuel prices – and the hardship this causes – due to Ireland’s reliance on energy imports”.
The letter cites new data and modelling supporting acceleration away from natural gas. It includes projections, based on committed policies, indicating a significant 43 per cent decline in natural gas demand this decade (relative to 2024) and a 67 per cent drop by 2040.
These projections show natural gas “can, and must, decline rapidly within the lifetime of any new LNG terminal”, the experts warn. “LNG is a severely polluting energy source ... especially when derived from fracked shale gas, due to leaked methane – a potent greenhouse gas – and the energy-intensive nature of its extraction and transportation”.
Despite being framed by some as a “transition fuel”, research finds LNG causes more climate damage than coal, the group adds.
Clean energy – wind and solar power, electricity grids, battery storage, heat pumps, district heating networks and efficiency measures – offers an unprecedented opportunity to achieve fossil fuel independence, they suggest.
European countries have demonstrated this potential since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, they add.
“By building more renewables and taking efficiency measures, gas consumption on the continent declined by 20 per cent in the past two years, to a 10-year low,” they note, while use of Europe’s LNG terminals has fallen below 50 per cent.
