Study advocating cleaner 'dirty' fuels supports OPEC's IEA pushback
London (Quantum Commodity Intelligence) – The largely Russian-backed Global Energy Association published this week a paper pushing for the adoption of technologies that can be used to clean 'dirty' fuels as part of a push back by OPEC+ countries against the International Energy Agency's call to end investment in fossil fuels immediately.
The GEA's annual '10 ideas' report, with foreword by Russian Deputy PM Alexander Novak, advocated for industrial carbon capture and storage (CCS), blue hydrogen (hydrogen made from natural gas with CCS) and catalytic methods for processing CO2 from coal-fired generation into other products.
The report was presented at a session of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum featuring Novak, as well as Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Management Committee at Gazprom and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdul Aziz bin Salman Al Saud.
The Saudi Energy Minister was quoted this week as comparing the IEA's framework for net-zero by 2050 to "La-la land", while other petrostates have also been outspoken in their criticism of a plan which they believe to be unrealistic.
"The wide variety of themes in the (GEA) report shows yet again that assumptions that energy transition is something of a straight line from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources are an exaggeration," said Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak at the forum.
"More properly, we are talking about a transition to sustainable development which allows for niches for both fossil fuels and alternative energy."
Alongside the CCS and coal-based technologies and greater adoption of already-realised methods such as drop-in biofuels from waste, power to e-fuels and high-temperature heat pumps, the paper also outlines scenarios for ultra-high voltage power transmission and floating solar stations as a means of reducing carbon footprints.
As a natural gas and oil exporter, Russia has long been an advocate for more moderate emission reduction targets, having pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol to cut emissions after its first phase ended in 2012.
Instead, it joined the US and China in backing a less legally-rigorous climate regime that was more dependent upon individual voluntary targets backed up by legally-binding obligations to report emissions in a so-called "pledge and review" agreement that became the Paris Agreement.
