The EU is promoting LNG as a cleaner alternative to traditional shipping fuels, but new evidence on upstream emissions shows that Europe’s gas mix is a lot dirtier than EU officials thought.

Fossil gas is seen as a cleaner alternative to traditional shipping fuels like heavy fuel oil, which is one of the most polluting fuels on earth. Today, there are almost 1,200 LNG-powered vessels globally with close to 1,000 on shipping companies’ order books.

However LNG imports are 30 per cent more polluting than is assumed by the EU in its green shipping law, a new study by Energy and Environmental Research Associates on behalf of T&E shows.

Inesa Ulichina, shipping officer at T&E, said: “Fossil gas will never be sustainable and is even dirtier than previously thought. Extracting, transporting and burning methane is a leaky business. This costly pursuit is leading major shipping companies to waste billions on a solution that won’t bring them any closer to their zero emission goals.”

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