Monday 20 January 2014

January Forum: Shale Gas: A Golden Age or a Gilded Cage?


January Forum: Shale Gas: A Golden Age or a Gilded Cage?

27 January 2014

16:00 – 17:00

Room: 4.214, University Place

Speaker: John Broderick, Research Fellow in Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Manchester

Following the previous NRN presentation on economic methods for accounting for time in health care policy, this forum will discuss what policy researchers can learn from the case of shale gas and the tools used to assess its impact, and vice versa.

The International Energy Agency has heralded the 21st Century as a “Golden Age of Gas” due to recent unconventional resource discoveries and new extraction technologies. As a lower carbon fossil fuel, gas is presented as a “transition” energy source although this perspective neglects the rate, scale and extent of decarbonisation required to give a good chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. This is illustrated through a cumulative emissions budget approach looking at energy policy to 2050.

Persistently low gas prices and weak EU ETS caps also have the potential to undermine the UK and EU transition to renewable energy sources and jeopardise climate mitigation targets. Using simple net present value calculations, we estimate that 7GW of gas CCS powerstation capacity, plus shale gas well infrastructure, would require the same investment as 12GW of offshore wind capacity or 21GW onshore. 

This event is open to all PGRs and Postdoctoral researchers to attend. There is no need to register. Just turn up and feel free to pass this onto anyone who may be interested in attending.

We look forward to seeing you at the event.

Kind regards,

The NRN coordinators

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