U.S Oil and Gas Boom Poses Threats to Climate Goals

The United States has increased its production of oil and gas dramatically during the past two years, even as it has increased its capacity for renewable energy. Energy shortages and threats to numerous countries’ energy security occurred worldwide when Russia invaded Ukraine and sanctions were imposed on Russian energy. Because of this, a large number of nations in North America, Europe, and other regions searched for alternate energy sources to make sure they had enough gas and oil to meet their needs.

President Biden asked oil and gas corporations to increase output to maintain U.S. energy security and lessen dependency on Russia, even though he had placed limitations on the growth of the country’s crude supply and firmly supported a green transition.

Global fossil fuel companies are currently on course to extract nearly four times as much gas and oil from recently approved projects by 2030. To the possible damage of its climate pledges, the United States is spearheading the recent surge in oil and gas activities.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has declared time and time again that if the world is to keep global warming to 1.5oC, no new infrastructure related to oil and gas can be constructed. When 196 parties, including the United States, signed the Paris Agreement, they agreed upon this cap. Nonetheless, since the IEA’s 2021 report, an estimated 20 billion barrels of oil equivalent of new gas and oil have been found.

For the past six years, the United States has produced more oil annually than any other nation in history. The United States broke all previous records in 2023, producing approximately 12.9 million barrels of crude oil per day. This is a result of President Biden’s bold climate commitments, and it is more than twice as much as the United States was producing a decade ago.

Due to the construction of multiple new gas terminals and the ongoing development of further ones, the United States also set records for gas output last year. Based on the current pipeline, U.S. LNG shipments are anticipated to quadruple over the next four years.

This is not expected to be a short-term trend, even though the increase in U.S. oil and gas output after the shortages encountered as a result of sanctions on Russian energy was universally acknowledged. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that petroleum production in the country will reach further record highs in 2024 and 2025.

It is anticipated that U.S. oil production will rise by 290,000 barrels per day to 13.21 million barrels by the end of the year. Up to 2050, the government anticipates maintaining near-record levels of gas and oil production, which would result in enormous greenhouse gas emissions. This approach would jeopardize global ambitions of the Paris Agreement and seems to be at conflict with Biden’s bold climate pledges.

As the world’s largest producer of crude oil, the actions taken by the United States will have a major effect on the global green transition. The United States is anticipated to account for around one-third of the global planned expansion of gas and oil reserves between now and 2050, according to a recent report’s results.

In addition to adding significantly to global greenhouse gas emissions, the ongoing oil and gas activities planned for the United States are likely to undermine international efforts towards a green transition by discouraging other nations from switching from fossil fuels to green alternatives.

The necessity for high-income nations to assist developing nations in building their renewable energy sectors and persuade them to abandon their oil and gas reserves has been brought up at the last three COP climate summits. But when the United governments (and other wealthy governments) continue to profit from oil and gas production, it is unlikely that poorer nations with the capacity to benefit from such production will forsake fossil fuel earnings in favor of a green transition.

The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the most comprehensive climate policy to date, was welcomed with great enthusiasm, but the United States is not reducing its carbon emissions at the rate required to accomplish its climate targets. Emissions of greenhouse gases decreased by about two percent.

The United States saw a two percent decrease in greenhouse gas emissions last year as a result of increased investment in green energy, which aided in hastening the Biden administration’s green transition.

This amount, however, falls well short of the rate needed to achieve the government’s goal of reducing U.S. emissions by 50% from 2005 levels by 2030. Even if the United States continues to develop its renewable resources at a quick pace, which will negatively affect global climate goals, it is extremely improbable that it will reach its climate targets as long as its oil and gas output continues to climb.