Please leave this field empty
Donate Monthly Make a Gift Renew Your Membership Ways to Give
Food & Water Watch Food & Water Watch Food & Water Watch
  • About
  • Problems
  • Campaigns
  • Impacts
  • Research
  • Contact
Donate Monthly Make a Gift Renew Your Membership Ways to Give
  • facebook
  • twitter
Please leave this field empty
Food & Water Watch Food & Water Watch
$
Menu
  • About
  • News
  • Research Library
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • Donate
Search
Please leave this field empty
  • facebook
  • twitter

Fracking Breaks the CO2 Budget

There's no room in the CO2 budget for fracking. 

  • facebook
  • twitter
  • google-plus
  • envelope

We all need safe food and clean water.

Donate
01.6.15

Carbon dioxide and fracking infographic
The Obama administration is prepared to directly regulate methane leaks from the oil and natural gas industry, and may do so soon. But as we explained in a previous blog, directly regulating methane from the industry greenwashes the climate impacts of widespread and intensive drilling and fracking for natural gas. That’s because, just looking at carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, almost all of the natural gas has to stay underground, unburned, to stay within a CO2 budget that would avoid dangerous climate changes.
 

In terms of climate impact, methane emissions from the natural gas industry largely, if not totally, offset reductions in carbon dioxide from using natural gas instead of coal, gasoline, diesel or heating oils. More methane is leaking than regulators estimate, and pound-for-pound, each puff of methane from the industry is 87 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat over 20 years, and 36 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat over 100 years. The conservative estimate from atmospheric measurements (not from inventorying) is that U.S. natural gas leakage in 2010, averaged over the country that year, amounted to over three percent of total 2010 production.

The Obama administration and many environmental organizations are making waves to reduce this leakage, but setting aside the effectiveness of any new rules, consider that in terms of CO2 alone, burning all the natural gas unleashed by fracking breaks the CO2 budget.

In order to have even a 75 percent chance to keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius (averting high risks of extremely dangerous and irreversible climate impacts, such as sea level rise, habitat destruction and extreme weather), then we must keep total CO2 emissions from 2015-2050 under about 440 Gigatonnes (Gt, or one trillion kilograms).[1] With this number, we arrive at a reasonable CO2 budget.

Of course part of this “budget” of about 440 Gt CO2 would be spent ramping down and phasing out oil and coal. Even if we arrived at the end of burning coal by 2025 and burning oil products by 2035 – extremely ambitious global goals – doing so would amount to about 200 Gt CO2. Leaving, just 240 more Gt CO2 left in our budget.

It turns out that CO2 emissions from burning all the “conventional” natural gas alone would add 794 Gt CO2 – over three times the 240 Gt CO2 left in the “budget” for natural gas. Using U.S. Energy Information Association estimates, global sources of unconventional natural gas (i.e., shale gas, tight gas and coalbed methane, which require extensive fracking) would amount to about 5600 Gt CO2, if it is all burned. That’s over 23 times the emissions left in the budget for natural gas! In other words (assuming no conventional gas) almost all “technically recoverable” natural gas (about 22/23rds of it!) needs to stay underground.

Clearly, while it is true that natural gas emits less CO2 than oil and coal products, there is no room in the CO2 budget for widespread and intensive extraction of natural gas.

Beyond the issue of climate change, widespread and intensive drilling and fracking will create many more immediate problems and leave a legacy of drinking water contamination. As explained in our recent report, The Urgent Case for Ban on Fracking, these problems make it ever more clear that in order to address the problem of climate change, we need to completely ban fracking.

[1] Using recent global CO2 emissions to update: Schellnhuber, Hans J. et al. German Advisory Council on Global Change. “World in Transition – A Social Contract for Sustainability.” 2011 at 114.

Related Links

  • Fracking Problems
  • The Urgent Case for a Ban on Fracking
Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version

Monsanto's Roundup is a "probable human carcinogen." We need to ban it!

Get the latest on your food and water with news, research and urgent actions.

Please leave this field empty

Latest News

  • Fracking Endgame: It's Literally Us Or The Frackers

    Fracking Endgame: It's Literally Us Or The Frackers

  • Mark Ruffalo, Emma Thompson Among 400+ To Call On UN To Demand A Ban On Fracking

  • Agricultural run off in Iowa

    We’re Suing Iowa for Choosing Big Ag Over Clean Water

See More News & Opinions

For Media: See our latest press releases and statements

Food & Water Insights

Looking for more insights and our latest research?

Visit our policy & research library
  • Cap and Trade: More Pollution for the Poor and People of Color

  • What the SLUDGE Is This?

  • Costco’s New Poultry Farms Are a Bad Deal for Iowa

Fracking activist with stickersFracking activist in hatLegal team loves family farmsFood & Water Watch organizer protecting your food

Work locally, make a difference.

Get active in your community.

Food & Water Impact

  • Victories
  • Stories
  • Facts
  • Trump, Here's a Better Use for $25 Billion

  • Here's How We're Going to Build the Clean Energy Revolution

  • How a California Activist Learned to Think Locally

Keep drinking water safe and affordable for everyone.

Take Action
food & water watch logo
en Español

Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold & uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people’s health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.

Food & Water Watch is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

Food & Water Action is a 501(c)4 organization.

Food & Water Watch Headquarters

1616 P Street, NW,
Washington, DC 20036

Main: 202.683.2500

Contact your regional office.

Work with us: See all job openings

  • Problems
    • Broken Democracy
    • Climate Change & Environment
    • Corporate Control of Food
    • Corporate Control of Water
    • Factory Farming & Food Safety
    • Fracking
    • GMOs
    • Global Trade
    • Pollution Trading
  • Solutions
    • Advocate Fair Policies
    • Legal Action
    • Organizing for Change
    • Research & Policy Analysis
  • Our Impact
    • Facts
    • Stories
    • Victories
  • Take Action
    • Get Active Where You Live
    • Organizing Tools
    • Find an Event
    • Volunteer with Us
    • Live Healthy
    • Donate
  • Give
    • Give Now
    • Give Monthly
    • Give a Gift Membership
    • Membership Options
    • Fundraise
    • Workplace Giving
    • Planned Giving
    • Other Ways to Give
  • About
  • News
  • Research Library
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • Donate
Learn more about Food & Water Action www.foodandwateraction.org.
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • 2019 © Food & Water Watch
  • www.foodandwaterwatch.org
  • Terms of Service
  • Data Usage Policy