Mr President, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, On behalf of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Spanish government and the UNFCCC Secretariat for organizing this conference and for their excellent arrangement and warm hospitality.
As a gathering of major gas producers which globally represents 71% of natural gas reserves, 44% of gas production, 55% of pipeline gas trade and 53% of LNG trade, the GECF recognizes the important challenges posed by climate change and values all the efforts undertaken by the international community to deal with the environmental issues.
The GECF 2019 Global Gas Outlook anticipates that energy-related CO2 emissions will observe a substantial deceleration compared to recent years. However, they will remain much higher than what is required to meet the Paris Agreement targets. These projections point out the need to deploy further carbon mitigation effort, including promoting the effective and flexible energy solutions which support the Paris Agreement climate pledges as well as countries’ development requirements.
The GECF is convinced that natural gas, as an abundant, affordable and clean hydrocarbon source, has a central role to play in mitigating carbon emissions while simultaneously supporting progress on several sustainable development dimensions including the environmental, economic and social dimensions. This commitment is largely anchored in the GECF Heads of State Declarations and the Organisation’s long-term strategy.
Natural gas is a balanced solution that contributes to reducing carbon intensity and pollution resulting from energy-related activities, supports access to modern energy, improves availability and reliability of supply, and provides competitive and affordable energy. Natural gas can also be a vector of increased cooperation and technology transfer between energy stakeholders. These credentials have been explicitly recognized in the G20 Ministerial Meeting on Energy Transitions and Global Environment for Sustainable Growth in Japan early this year.
The natural gas industry looks seriously to several technology options that can furtherly promote decarbonization potential of natural gas, including the carbon capture, utilization and sequestration options, and the production of hydrogen from natural gas. This adds to other progress in efficiency and digitalization that enables a substantial reduction of greenhouse gases emissions from natural gas-related operations and along the entire supply chain. Furthermore, natural gas offers a valuable opportunity to reduce emissions in the transportation sector, supported by expansion and technology progress of NGVs across the world.
The GECF strongly insists on the role of constructive debate and international cooperation in bringing effective global responses to climate change and sustainable development. We are concerned that in this era of energy transitions, certain countries introduce discriminatory regulation against cleaner hydrocarbon fuels such as natural gas, that disturbs the global gas markets design, undermines investment in critical gas transport infrastructure and new gas supply projects
The GECF engagement in the UNFCCC as an observer organisation marks the willingness to contribute to this debate and to scale up the Member Countries’ collective actions in order to reduce the environmental footprint of natural gas. In this context, the GECF has initiated the Environmental Actions Framework that aims to create a supportive and collaborative platform allowing Member Countries to share best practices to deal with the environmental challenges, build capabilities and establish progressive research collaborations between the GECF and different actors and organizations on various environment-related topics.
In line with this environmental ambition, the GECF Secretariat has reinforced its cooperation with various organisations to strengthen its research activity, exchange views and expertise and develop studies on several topics related to the interactions between energy and our environment. The outcome of the studies will be translated into concrete recommendations on energy policy actions for the GECF Member Countries.
The recently established GECF Gas Research Institute is set to become a pivotal project for our organization with the aim to develop and disseminate technical knowledge and innovative technologies. This institute is a foremost instrument to encourage the development of the technologies that reduce GHGs emissions.
The GECF strives to develop effective communication channels between producers and consumers, in favour of our long-term mutual interests, to support natural gas as a viable and reliable solution for sustainable development.
Thank you.