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Shale gas and fracking:
an NGO perspective
Tony Bosworth
Climate & Energy Campaigner
Friends of the Earth England, Wales &
Northern Ireland
Friends of the Earth
• World’s largest grassroots environmental
network: 76 national groups, 5 continents.
• We campaign for sustainable and just
societies and for the protection of the
environment.
• Movement just over 40 years old
Friends of the Earth Europe
• Europe’s largest
grassroots
environmental
network
• 30 national
organisations
• Thousands of
local groups
Important caveat
These are the views of Friends of the Earth England,
Wales & Northern Ireland.
However they are broadly shared by Friends of the
Earth groups across Europe and other green NGOs.
What I want to talk about
• The climate crisis
• Our energy future
• Does unconventional gas have a role to play? (focus
on shale gas but also coal bed methane,
underground coal gasification)
Climate change is
happening now
Global trajectories
Country trajectories
Our energy future
Three underlying principles:
• Environmental – helps tackle climate change and
minimises other impacts
• Social – gives people access to services they need eg
warm homes, safe & reliable transport
• Economic – does this at an affordable cost for
people and businesses
What this means
•
•
•
•
Reduce demand and maximise energy efficiency
Electrify demand fast where this is possible
Decarbonise electricity
Carbon Capture & Storage where possible for
what’s left
• Some negative emissions technology needed
The UK’s future
electricity mix
Nuclear
Unabated gas
Gas with CCS
Other fossil fuels
Renewables
Shale gas – the key questions
•
•
•
•
Is it safe?
Will it help tackle climate change?
Will it cut energy bills?
Will it create jobs?
EC assessment of risks to
environment and health
High risk issues for cumulative
impact:
• Ground water contamination
• Surface water contamination
• Air pollution
• Also water resource use,
land take, biodiversity
impacts, noise and traffic
Water
• Contamination:
anecdotal or real?
• Chemicals:
– what’s going down the
well?
– worker exposure
• Waste water
• Water resources: one
well or 10,000 people?
Risks of contamination
• “You never have control. Fractures will always go
into the path of least resistance.”
(Mark Miller, Cuadrilla)
• “Hydraulic fracturing will contaminate New York's
aquifers. If you were looking for a way to poison the
drinking water supply, here in the north-east you
couldn't find a more chillingly effective and
thorough method of doing so than with hydraulic
fracturing.“
(Paul Hetzler, former groundwater expert, NY State DEC)
Climate change solution?
• Shale gas: transition, destination or companion
fuel?
• Relative greenhouse impact compared to coal and
conventional gas
• Negative impact on investment in renewables
• Substitute for coal or renewables?
A Golden Age of Gas?
International Energy Agency scenario:
• global gas demand up 50% to 2035
• unconventional gas production triples to 2035
• “… puts CO2 emissions on a long-term trajectory
consistent with a probable temperature rise of more
than 3.5 °C in the long term”.
• “we are not saying that it will be a golden age for
humanity - we are saying it will be a golden age for
gas”
Will Carbon Capture & Storage
solve the problem?
• Not operational at
scale anywhere in the
world
• Will it be costeffective?
• Global development is
slowing
• IEA does not assume
CCS in the period to
2035
Will shale gas cut
energy bills?
“Those waiting for a shale-gas ‘revolution’ outside the
US will likely be disappointed, in terms of both price
and the speed at which high-volume production can
be achieved.
We do not expect the impact of shale-gas production
on EU gas prices to be anywhere near as great as has
been the case with US shale-gas production”
(Deutsche Bank)
Jobs: how many?
Evidence from UK:
• Cuadrilla: shale gas exploitation would create 5600
jobs in the UK, of which 1700 in Lancashire
• But experience from US shows numbers often
overstated
• UK renewables:
– 1544 jobs in North West in 1 year
– 21,000 in UK as a whole
– Potential for 400,000 by end of the decade
Jobs: who for and how long for?
• Will skilled jobs go to local people? Do imported
skills mean a transient workforce?
• Can’t be ‘in and out quickly’ and have sustainable
long-term employment
• Boom and bust?
Jobs: impact on other sectors?
• Cuadrilla study didn’t look at impacts on existing
key local sectors: tourism (£200m annually),
agriculture, market gardening
• Concern in Australia about coal-seam gas:
– tourism bodies calling for moratorium
– “Exploration for, or production of, gas has the potential
to severely disrupt virtually every aspect of agricultural
production on cropping lands and, in extreme
circumstances, remove the land from production.”
(Senate inquiry)
Jobs: what delivers most?
• How many jobs created for $1 million investment?
– Gas
5
– Coal
7
– Wind
13
– Solar
14
– Building retrofits
17
(University of Massachusetts)
• Jobs at all levels of educational attainment
• Green energy creates more jobs at all levels
Conclusions
Answers to key questions:
• Big risks for environment, public and workers (and
gaps in EU legislation)
• Doesn’t help tackle climate change and affects
renewables
• Unlikely to cut energy bills
• Green energy creates more jobs
Unconventional, unwanted, unnecessary
Widespread opposition
• Bans in France and Bulgaria
• Moratoriums in Holland, parts of Germany, Austria,
Switzerland, Czech Republic
• Grassroots opposition in all countries
• Fastest growing social movement in Australia (Lock
the Gate Alliance)
The way forward
• Moratorium: no shale gas extraction
• “The optimum path would be to see more
renewables, more efficiency and more low carbon
technologies”
(International Energy Agency)