Shale gas strategy ‘not the optimum path’: Fatih Birol

Report of a EurActiv interview with Fatih Birol, the International Energy Agency's (IEA) chief economist at the launch of a IEA report 'Golden rules for the Golden Age of Gas’, May 2012.

Natural gas is poised to enter a golden age, but this future hinges critically on the successful development of the world’s vast unconventional gas resources. North American experience shows unconventional gas - notably shale gas - can be exploited economically. Many countries are lining up to emulate this success.

But some governments are hesitant, or even actively opposed. They are responding to public concerns that production might involve unacceptable environmental and social damage.

This report, in the World Energy Outlook series, treats these aspirations and anxieties with equal seriousness. It features two new cases: a Golden Rules Case, in which the highest practicable standards are adopted, gaining industry a 'social licence to operate'; and its counterpart, in which the tide turns against unconventional gas as constraints prove too difficult to overcome.

Environmental and renewable energy groups criticised the conclusions of the report.

ESO: Background information: Shale Gas: Finds that form a bedrock of hop http://www.europeansources.info/record/shale-gas-europe/

IEA: Publications: World Energy Outlook: Golden rules for a Golden Age of Gas, May 2012 http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/goldenrules/IEA: Publications

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