This month’s report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in which it delivers its most unequivocal message to date on the urgency of cancelling plans for new fossil fuel infrastructure and slashing their role in the power sector, also came with the revelation that countries dependent on coal, oil and gas sought to water down the IPCC findings by including unproven solutions to the climate crisis in the report. A similar sleight of hand is being deployed in Asia, where the transition to clean energy is being resisted by parties intent on continuing the region’s dependency on fossil fuels, especially gas . Such false solutions jeopardise the narrowing window to implement proven measures that can help humanity avoid the catastrophic effects of a temperature increase above 1.5 degrees Celsuis, while balancing the need for social and economic development. Energy crisis, Russia sanctions are good news for Asia’s climate fight The most common refrain heard across the region is that gas can serve as a transitional fuel from coal, the most polluting of fossil fuels. But the argument that gas is “low carbon” is both dangerous and disingenuous, not least because the region has lined up more than US$350 billion worth of projects to expand liquefied natural gas terminals, gas-burning power plants and pipelines. While gas is less carbon-intensive than coal, it is still a significant source of carbon. As both the IPCC and the International Energy Agency’s Net Zero report make clear, no space remains in the global carbon budget for any new fossil fuel infrastructure, and even existing fossil fuel infrastructure needs to be phased out, starting immediately. Switching from coal to gas will simply prolong dependence on fossil fuels far beyond what the planet can tolerate. Furthermore, it can take decades to recoup investments in these projects, creating additional resistance to the transition to renewables. Given the overwhelming evidence that dependency on fossil fuels must end and China’s indication that it will decrease its emissions , any new investments in gas infrastructure risk quickly becoming stranded or underutilised. In 2020, Xi Jinping said China would aim for its carbon emissions to peak before 2030. If China means to meet this goal, it will need to quickly and drastically reduce its dependence on fossil fuels. New investments in fossil fuel infrastructure, then, are counter productive and financially risky. Price volatility is also likely to become a regular feature of global gas markets, exacerbating the economic downside of such investments. Some argue that renewable alternatives cannot handle the legwork of fossil fuels, neither by providing enough power at crucial peak hours nor in a cost-effective manner. But the trade-off is that if all the planned gas facilities are needed as “peaker plants” – plants that are only turned on when energy demand is peaking – then the amount of harmful air pollution emitted will be stifling, since the greatest amount of air pollution is produced during the start-up and shutdown of the plant. This is because incomplete combustion occurs during start-up and shutdown. So while intermittent operation may sound more benign than steady operation, it can in fact be damaging to human health and the environment. Critics also point to the dependency of renewables on grid operators installing large battery systems. While these are in the early stages of commercialisation, battery storage is now cheaper than gas peaker plants, in addition to being more responsive to the needs of the grid. But the coup de grace from critics of renewables is that gas plants can also be “decarbonised” through carbon capture facilities. Carbon capture is extremely expensive and unproven as a mechanism to successfully reduce carbon emissions, thereby further increasing the competitiveness of renewables against new gas plants. Carbon capture projects have routinely overpromised and underdelivered with respect to meaningful emissions reductions. The bottom line is that this planned shift to gas will create more health impacts, be more expensive and exacerbate the climate crisis; while all of these problems can be solved more cheaply and efficiently by foregoing gas plants and relying on renewables. China and others have insisted that they have the right to follow in the West’s footsteps by burning carbon to decrease poverty and develop their economies. But the region would be better served tuning out the detractors and refocusing its attention on the genuine solutions offered by renewables. Julie Joly is the director of Oil and Gas Programs at Global Energy Monitor