Global policies and action put the planet on track for temperatures to rise 2.4°C above pre-industrial levels, with the scramble to build new gas infrastructure in the wake of Russia’s war and atrocities in Ukraine exacerbating the crisis, a newly-updated report from Climate Action Tracker warns. “If this were only about replacing the Russian gas, we are totally overdoing it,” Niklas Höhne, a climate policy scientist at Germany’s New Climate Institute and contributor to Climate Action Tracker, told Bloomberg. “And that is not good news.”
Russia has sought to leverage Europe’s dependence upon it for methane gas as those countries have driven global gas prices prohibitively high in their efforts to shore up their own supplies for the coming winter. “This is not only dangerous for the climate but economically reckless,” Lisa Fischer of E3G said in a statement. “Renewables are cheaper, and major importers such as Europe are reducing their gas consumption much faster, the EU intending a 50% cut by 2030. A lot of this infrastructure might produce, but will struggle to sell.” (Bloomberg $, AP, Reuters, The Guardian)