At COP28, Green Groups Demand That the U.S. Halt Its Support for LNG

The administration of US President Joe Biden was urged by more than 250 environmental and community organisations on Thursday to stop supporting LNG because of the fuel’s role in climate change.

At the COP28 United Nations climate summit in Dubai, where dozens of countries are advocating for a global accord to phase out usage of CO2-emitting fossil fuels like LNG, the groups, led by Friends of the Earth, sent a letter to Biden.

Natural gas used for power and heating that has been cooled to a liquid form for storage and transportation is known as LNG. Climate activists push for the gradual phase-out of fossil fuels, such as LNG, in favour of renewable energy sources like solar and wind.

In the letter, the administration is urged to stop approving new LNG facilities and to stop lending the sector financial and diplomatic backing.

After Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the Biden administration issued five U.S. LNG export licences to supply the European market, despite having not approved any earlier.

As it works to wean itself off on Russian gas, the United States is the world’s largest exporter of LNG, with the majority of those exports heading to Europe. Government data shows that since 2019, carbon dioxide emissions from US LNG installations have increased by 81%.

“Any push for a phase-out of all fossil fuels at COP28 risks falling flat if the world’s leading LNG exporter shows no signs of changing course,” the letter read. “We urge the Biden administration to publicly commit during COP to no further regulatory, financial, or diplomatic support for LNG in the United States or anywhere in the world.”

In the run-up to the U.S. presidential election in November of next year, Biden must think about how his base of environmentally conscious supporters might be turned off by the approval of fossil fuel projects.

A request for comment from the White House was not immediately answered.

According to the Energy Information Administration, U.S. LNG exports averaged a record 11.6 billion cubic feet per day in the first half of 2023, up 4% over the same period in the previous year. According to LSEG, over 68% of American LNG was shipped to Europe in November.