The Gary Null Blog

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/nov/23/shale-gas-climate-change-targets?CMP=EMCENVEML1631

Report says that exploiting just one-fifth of Lancashire's shale gas reserves would put carbon emissions targets out of reach

• Fiona Harvey, environment correspondent

• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 23 November 2011

• The UK will fail to meet its climate change targets if industry and politicians back controversial new plans to go ahead with widespread drilling for shale gas, according to a report published on Wednesday.

About 2tr cubic feet of natural gas trapped in dense shale rocks is estimated to lie beneath Lancashire according to Cuadrilla Resources, the main shale gas company operating in the UK. Further exploration in Wales, Scotland and other parts of England could add substantially to this total.

But burning it for fuel results in large-scale carbon dioxide emissions, and scientists from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Research, in a report commissioned by the Cooperative Group, warned that exploiting even a minor proportion of this gas would generate so much carbon dioxide that the government's greenhouse gas emissions targets would be rendered unreachable.