A transition to renewables is underway across the world to address climate change and natural gas as an indispensable part of the global energy mix, as it can play a key role to help the world shift to a lower carbon energy future and protect the environment.
Oil Minister Javad Owji made the statement at the 23rd annual ministerial meeting of Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) held via videoconference on Tuesday, the Oil Ministry’s news portal reported.
“The high use of fossil fuels like coal and crude oil without measures to mitigate greenhouse gases has had global climate change implications,” he said, adding that natural gas is needed to limit the impact.
Nonetheless, countries like Iran, which are blessed with an abundance of underground resources such as natural gas, cannot fully contribute to climate change mitigation and disaster risk reduction unless they are provided with the know-how to tap into their low carbon energy resources more effectively.
“As long as the US unilateral sanctions are in place, developed countries will not be willing to transfer their know-how to Iran and we will have to tap into eco-unfriendly fuels like mazut that is to the detriment of the world,” Owji said.
In other words, efforts to curtail greenhouse gases and lower carbon emissions will not yield the desired result unless developed countries share their high technology with developing states that have access to clean sources of energy, such as natural gas.
Despite difficulties, including geostrategic challenges and the coronavirus pandemic, Iran has made noticeable progress in its natural gas industry in line with Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015.
The goal is to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all to help open opportunities for people through economic opportunities and jobs, better education and health, more sustainable, equitable and inclusive communities, and greater protections from, and resilience to, climate change.
Impending Crisis
Due to greenhouse gas emissions, climate change is arguably one of humankind’s biggest threats. In order to cope with the changing climate and limit global warming to below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, as set during the 2015 Paris Agreement, the adoption of new energy systems and related policies are key to the impending crisis.
“In a warming world largely fueled by non-renewable fuels, challenges related to energy are becoming increasingly complex and as long as energy is used as a political tool to suppress certain countries, the future of the world energy will look decidedly gloomy,” the oil minister said.
“Relying on domestic human resources, know-how and investment, we have reached a sustainable production level of 1 billion cubic meters of gas per day.”
According to the minister, almost 95% of the total 85 million population in Iran have access to piped gas.
Expanding and applying decarbonization technology in the production and transmission of natural gas and the development of blue hydrogen production technology are among ways of enhancing gas consumption in the energy transition period.
Owji said despite all odds, including the Covid-19 pandemic, geostrategic challenges that slowed global economic growth and the changing pattern of gas consumers, better days lie ahead for GECF and other gas producers.
“In the last four years, the international community has experienced a big blow to its efforts to expand effective cooperation, multilateralism, sustainable development and to a certain extent, globalization,” he added.
He stressed that the materialization of the lofty goals of GECF demands meaningful cooperation, coordination and an apolitical energy environment.
Natural gas has emerged as the most favored fossil fuel in recent years, accounting for 45% of the rise in energy consumption in 2018, according to the International Energy Agency.
Led by China and the Middle East, IEA sees global demand for natural gas growing more than four times faster than demand for oil over the next two decades.
GEFC said it wants to further promote the use of natural gas as an "environmentally-friendly" transport fuel, including for global shipping.
The gas organization includes the world's biggest gas exporters – Russia, Qatar and Iran – and holds around 60% of the world's proven gas reserves.
Although often referred as "Gas OPEC”, the forum is more of an advisory body rather than one that takes collective policy action.
