Gas strategy in the UK is wrongheaded | Letters

It is no surprise that the government's strategy on fracking has been deemed unlawful, write Robin Russell-Jones and Geraint Davies. Carbon emissions will be even lower if the gas boiler is run on hydrogen gas, writes Carl Arntzen. And Stephen Martin and Stephen Sterling say wealth redistribution is needed to reduce global warming

It is no surprise that the government's strategy on fracking has been deemed unlawful (Fracking guidance illegally ignores climate change, 7 March). Gas may be more fuel efficient than coal when burnt, but shale gas is 95% methane, and methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. According to the IPCC it has a global warming potential (GWP) 85 times greater than carbon dioxide over a 20-year timeframe. Misleadingly, HMG have relied on an obsolete figure of 36 for the GWP of methane, dating back to 2013.

Methane levels plateaued in the late 1990s, but have started to increase again over the past decade and have now reached 1,900 parts per billion, against a pre-industrial level of 700. Fracking is the obvious culprit. Satellite data over the US has shown that methane leakage exceeds 5% of shale gas production, an observation that fits with more recent studies by Nasa showing that fossil fuels are the major contributor to the continuing rise in atmospheric methane.

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