Challenges to the Future of Gas: unburnable or unaffordable?

The Imperial College London Energy Futures Lab presents the 2017 Sustainable Gas Research Annual Lecture, given by Jonathan Stern, a Distinguished Research Fellow at Oxford's Institute for Energy Studies.

For the period up to 2030, the principal threats to the future of gas outside North America will be affordability and competitiveness. Beyond that date – and particularly beyond 2040 – carbon (and potentially also methane) emissions from gas will cause it to become progressively 'unburnable' if COP21 targets are to be met. 

Regionally, and especially nationally, the reality of gas extraction and use will be very different, and this level of granularity is crucial for any kind of detailed appraisal of the future of gas. Despite these reservations, on a global level a 20-year horizon prior to significant decline qualifies gas as a `transition fuel’. 

About the speaker: Jonathan Stern founded the OIES Natural Gas Research Programme in 2003 and was its Director until October 2011 when he became its Chairman and a Senior Research Fellow, he became a Distinguished Fellow in October 2016. He is honorary professor at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum & Mineral Law & Policy, University of Dundee; visiting professor at the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London; fellow of the Energy Delta Institute and a Distinguished Research Fellow of the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (in Tokyo). From 2011-16 he was the EU Speaker of the EU–Russia Gas Advisory Council.

The talk will be preceded by coffee in the Sir Alexander Fleming Building foyer, and there will be a drinks reception in the same area after the conclusion of Professor Stern's presentation.

 

For further details, and to register for this talk, please see the event webpage here.