Integrated assessment models show that, without new climate policies, abundant supplies of natural gas will have little impact on greenhouse-gas emissions and climate change. See Letter p.482
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
Public perceptions of shale gas in the UK: framing effects and decision heuristics
Energy, Ecology and Environment Open Access 14 September 2018
-
Whatever happened to the Golden Age of natural gas?
Energy Transitions Open Access 21 August 2017
-
Drivers of the US CO2 emissions 1997–2013
Nature Communications Open Access 21 July 2015
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to the full article PDF.
USD 39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Ausubel, J. H., Grübler, A. & Nakicenovic, N. Clim. Change 12, 245–263 (1988).
Podesta, J. D. & Wirth, T. E. Natural Gas: A Bridge Fuel for the 21st Century (Center for American Progress, 2009); http://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/issues/2009/08/pdf/naturalgasmemo.pdf
McJeon, H. et al. Nature 514, 482–485 (2014).
Brandt, A. R. et al. Science 343, 733–735 (2014).
Huntington, H. EMF26: Changing the Game? Emissions and Market Implications of New Natural Gas Supplies (Energy Modeling Forum, 2013).
Newell, R. G. & Raimi, D. Environ. Sci. Technol. 48, 8360–8368 (2014).
Shearer, C., Bistline, J., Inman, M. & Davis, S. J. Environ. Res. Lett. 9, 094008 (2014).
International Energy Agency. Golden Rules for a Golden Age of Gas (IEA, 2012).
Channell, J., Lam, T. & Pourreza, S. Shale & Renewables: A Symbiotic Relationship (Citi Res., 2012).
Davis, S. J. & Socolow, R. H. Environ. Res. Lett. 9, 084018 (2014).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Davis, S., Shearer, C. A crack in the natural-gas bridge. Nature 514, 436–437 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13927
Published:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13927
This article is cited by
-
Feasibility assessment of biomass for sustainable power generation to mitigate climate change in a rural cluster: a case study in India
Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery (2023)
-
The expansion of natural gas infrastructure puts energy transitions at risk
Nature Energy (2022)
-
Public perceptions of shale gas in the UK: framing effects and decision heuristics
Energy, Ecology and Environment (2018)
-
Whatever happened to the Golden Age of natural gas?
Energy Transitions (2017)
-
Drivers of the US CO2 emissions 1997–2013
Nature Communications (2015)
Peter P. Edwards
In this recent News and Views, Steven Davis and Christine Shearer point to the fact that burning fossil fuels produces more than 80% of the world's energy and more than 90% of the global CO2 emissions (Nature, 514, 436-437; 2014).
These authors propose that slowing and ultimately stopping climate change depends on decarbonisation ? the transformation of the global energy system into one that does not eject CO2 into the atmosphere.
An alternative solution is to recycle CO2 back into its remarkably energy-effective hydrocarbon parent fuel, but using renewable energy throughout.
The greatest challenges of this approach centres on the air capture of CO2 and the need to use 'green hydrogen', i.e. hydrogen produced from renewable, sustainable sources. The considerable advantage, of course, is that the resulting carbon-neutral hydrocarbon fuel will utilise all of the existing infrastructure.
Thus, decarbonisation of our future global energy system is one possibility; turning CO2 (back) into a carbon-neutral hydrocarbon fuel is another.
The latter approach is not decarbonisation, but sustainable recarbonisation, utilising the most effective energy garnishing chemical element from across the Periodic Table.