Kevin Anderson, deputy director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, told MPs “there is no role for shale gas at all in the UK”.
Anderson said unconventional gas would not have a role to play because “there is no emission space available” to allow for the burning of shale gas, claiming it would pump up to 40 million tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere.
However, Francis Egan, CEO for Cuadrilla Resources, told the committee that gas, including shale gas, “will be needed for decades”, to help balance the electricity system and for the domestic and business sectors.
He added that domestic shale gas has the potential to meet a quarter of the UK’s gas needs, but the Department of Energy and Climate Change needs to give to green light for the flow rate to be established from the shale gas reserves.