Fossil gas is gaining ground and increasing in importance in the global energy scenario. There are numerous publications and studies evaluating the risk of fuels such as crude oil and coal, but in the case of gas it is more difficult to find critical analyses of the risks involved in its promotion.
This booklet intends to show the various dimensions and risks associated with the global and European push for gas. It examines its geopolitical, economic, financial, environmental, climatic and social aspects; it analyses the role of historical development, major infrastructures, extraction zones, large companies, free trade agreements, financial capitalism, labour and public institutions. Simply examining all these dimensions confirms that aspects of the official rhetoric are questionable. Faced with the official line, which pours out irrefutable data on energy security and dependence, which expounds essential and urgent diversification and which repeats the mantra of gas as a bridging fuel for the energy transition, the Global Gas Lock-in contains enough information, references and objective data to build up an alternative narrative to the official one. It does this, moreover, while trying to demystify the highly technical language of the world of energy, with the aim of making it more readable and more accessible so that this publication can be used as the basis for a critical discussion of the push for gas.
This booklet is accompanied by the gas map Global Gas Lock-in: Bridge to Disaster, which gives an overview on the existing and planned gas infrastructures – with a focus on Europe. These are mainly pipelines and LNG ports (Liquified Natural Gas). The gas map also shows, from which parts of the world the gas is currently imported.
Available for download or order free hard copies by sending an email to: info.bruessel(at)rosalux(dot)org.
Author: Alfons Pérez – abril 2017
Colaborators: Anna Pérez, Davide Panadori, Nicola Sherer, Alfred Burballa, Josep Nualart y Raül Sánchez.
With the support of: Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung and the European Union.
