Completing plans to expand the European Union’s natural gas import capacity runs the risk of creating €87 billion worth of stranded assets while jeopardising the EU’s climate goals, says a report published on Wednesday 7 April by the NGO Global Energy Monitor.
According to the document, if all of them are finalised, the gas infrastructures (pipelines and liquefied natural gas import terminals) currently in the pre-construction or construction phase will increase the EU’s gas import capacity by at least 222 billion cubic metres per year, i.e by 35%.
This expansion of gas import capacity will be particularly significant in the west of the EU, mainly due to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline currently being finalised, the report also shows.
About 112 billion cubic metres per year of new import capacity is being built or planned in this region (including 55 billion m3/year from Nord Stream 2).
Highlighting the need for the EU to massively reduce the use of natural gas to meet its climate targets, Mason Inman, one of the authors of the report, said: “If this gas build-out goes ahead, the EU risks exceeding its [greenhouse gas] emission targets or spending billions of euros on unnecessary gas infrastructure”.
The report also reveals that 5 billion worth of gas projects were cancelled or shelved in 2020, while other projects worth €25 billion have been delayed.
This publication comes at a time when the approach to gas is regularly debated within the EU institutions, notably in the context of the ongoing review of the Union’s rules on the financing of energy infrastructure with European public money (TEN-E Regulation - see EUROPE 12686/25, 12647/11).
See the report: https://bit.ly/3uBPFgf (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)