Achieving global decarbonization to stabilize the climate depends not only on technical and scientific collaboration of all beneficiaries but also their genuine political will and investment in infrastructure development projects.
Oil Minister Javad Owji made the statement at the 24th annual ministerial meeting of Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) held in Cairo, Egypt, on Tuesday, the Oil Ministry’s news portal reported.
“As long as the largest holders of hydrocarbon reserves, including Iran and Russia, are boycotted, realizing global carbon neutrality will not be more than wishful thinking, as natural gas plays the role of a bridge in the energy transition worldwide,” he said.
Natural gas is an effective bridging medium for the transition of energy from conventional to renewables, which explains why imposing sanctions on nations with the largest proven gas reserves will lead to irreparable consequences in the energy sector.
Iran (34 trillion cubic meters) and Russia (32.6 tcm) hold the largest proven gas reserves in the world.
The Iranian oil minister said the materialization of the lofty goals of establishment of GECF demands meaningful cooperation, coordination and an apolitical energy environment.
The GEFC is expected to 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.
According to the minister, natural gas is one of the mainstays of global energy. Where it substitutes more contaminating fuels, it improves air quality and limits emissions of carbon dioxide.
Energy Transition
Energy transition refers to the global energy sector’s shift from fossil-based systems of energy production and consumption, including oil, natural gas and coal, to renewable energy sources like wind and solar, as well as lithium-ion batteries.
Natural gas is a cleaner alternative and acts as a “bridge fuel” toward environmentally-friendly options. Thus, the demand for this resource will inevitably increase in the future, hence all countries must work together to prevent global climate change and global warming.
Owji said regulation of and commitment to decarbonization have been mixed, but the energy transition will continue to increase in importance and investors are expected to prioritize environmental and social parameters.
“Iran’s oil and petrochemical industries have made great strides in terms of developing indigenous technology and completing the value chain,” he said.
“Long-term forecast for natural gas demand indicates that by 2050, the share of natural gas in the global energy mix will increase from the current 23% to 28%.”
Nonetheless, the share is not sufficient to achieve targets set by the UN’s sustainable development goals and climate change, especially in the past 30 years.
“GECF needs to explore new vistas for expanding gas use and achieving the 30% share in the global energy mix by 2050.”
Expanding and applying decarbonization technology in the production and transmission of natural gas and the development of blue hydrogen production technology are ways of increasing gas consumption in the energy transition period.
Economic Growth
Owji noted that despite all odds, including the Covid-19 pandemic, geostrategic challenges that slow 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’s efforts were dealt a big blow to expand effective cooperation, multilateralism, sustainable development and to a certain extent, globalization,” he said.
Natural gas use has witnessed the fastest growth among fossil fuels 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.
Nearly two-thirds of 1.2 million people polled worldwide say humanity faces a climate emergency, according to a UN survey, the largest of its kind ever undertaken.
Young and old, rich and poor, respondents in 50 nations, home to more than half the global population also chose from a score of policy options to tackle the problem, researchers at the UN Development Program and the University of Oxford reported on Wednesday, AFP reported.
The findings suggest the grassroots global climate movement that surged on to the world stage in 2019 — led, in part, by a then 16-year Greta Thunberg of Sweden — is still gaining momentum, even if a raging pandemic has obscured its scope.
"Concern about the climate emergency is far more widespread than we knew before," Stephen Fisher, a sociologist at Oxford who helped design the survey and process the data, told AFP in an interview.
"And the large majority of those who do recognize a climate emergency want urgent and comprehensive action," he added.
