Michael, another example of you apparently not reading others’ comments:
– “When the gas is removed from the ground it has to be sold and shifted, it is quite difficult to store…”
I have repeatedly referred to the UK gas storage facility at Rough in the North Sea, that Blair’s government sold off, and Centrica ran into the ground, which is why UK gas prices have gone up more than in the EU. Try this search:
https://www.google.com/search?q=european+and+UK+gas+storage
Or there are articles like this:
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/mounting-fears-1970s-style-three-092842868.html
– The UK has slashed its strategic gas storage to barely 1.7% of annual demand by closing the Rough facility off the Yorkshire coast, subcontracting the costly task of storage to Germany and the Netherlands. Clive Moffatt, a gas consultant and former adviser to the Government on energy security, said: “It should be nearer 25%.”
– Data from Gas Infrastructure Europe show that the UK has less than nine terawatt hours of storage compared to 75 terawatt hours in the Netherlands (with a quarter of the population).
October 15, 09:26, #79578:
– “We have done more than our bit in the U.K…”
No, our government has plucked the low hanging fruit, they’ve done the easiest thing, converting from coal to gas. But burning natural gas still releases greenhouse gases. Some 15% of the gas simply escapes, releasing methane, which is several times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. And methane is CH4 – one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms. So when it is burned, some of the heat comes from the hydrogen, releasing water vapour, but the rest comes from the carbon, releasing carbon dioxide.
Converting from coal to gas was only ever intended as the first step, a stop-gap while enough renewables infrastructure was built. Yes, other countries have to do more, all countries have to do more, and countries that industrialised earlier, notably the USA and Europe owe a debt to more recently industrialised countries like China because we already burned loads of carbon over previous decades and centuries, and it’s still in the atmosphere. Look at the graph linked below – each person in the UK still burns more fossil fuel than each person in China:
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/fossil-fuels-per-capita
No country is exempt. This is an emergency because it has been left too long. Global emissions have to be halved emissions in ten years, and have to get to zero by mid century.