In a report published Thursday, the Think Tank Influencemap is scrutinizing the strategies put in place by the International Gas Union to increase the place of this fossil energy to the detriment of the fight against climate change.
by Marjorie Cessac and Audrey Garric
Present gas as a green energy, necessary both for ecological transition and energy safety; target international organizations that can support its development; Establish relationships with media and key tanks. Unpublished strategic documents reveal how the International Gaz Union (UIG), which brings together industrialists in the sector, sought to redefine the role of this fossil energy in the face of increasing concerns around climate change, adapting its communication according to level of “environmental consciousness” of each market.
The Think Tank Influencemap, based in London and specialized in climate and energy, details this strategy and its influence on public policies in A report published Thursday December 15 , at which MO12345LEMONDE had access. It shows how some of the 153 members of the International Gas Union – window which brings together 90 % of the market , with actors such as Totalenergies, Engie, Shell, Exxonmobil or Petrobas – have reused the same arguments.
Influencemap experts reviewed around fifty documents – presentations of the Executive Committee, reports on the activities of working groups, Pleidoyers, etc. – dating from 2017 to 2021 and published on the UIG website between September 2021 and April 2022, before being deleted.
“Find a positive message”
In these files, the International Gas Union believes that the fight against climate change leads to a “potentially existential” threat for the “world value chain of natural gas”. She judges that it is not in its interest “to ignore the question, but to find a positive message to defend and strengthen the role of gas in global energy dynamics”.
“The sector, mainly driven by its economic interest, seeks to increase the place of gas rather than starting a transition, which undermines climate action and ignores science”, regrets Faye Holder, director of programs ‘Influencemap.
The latest reports of the Intergovernmental Experts Group on Climate Evolution (IPCC) have shown that maintaining a chance to limit global warming to 1.5 ° C, the most ambitious limit of the Paris Agreement , implies not building new fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) installations and to put part of existing ones out of service. The use of fossil gas should fall by 45 % by 2050 compared to 2019 and even 70 % without technologies of capturing and storage of CO2.
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