'Gloves off' in zero-carbon gas industry fight

The natural gas industry has been advised to prepare for a "gloves-off" fight against coal and other fossil fuels to snare its share of the world's shrinking carbon budget or face its inevitable demise as the world heads towards a zero-carbon future.

If the gas industry wants to continue to grow "the gloves need to come off and fight for what is a limited share of the global carbon budget," said Oxford University professor of environmental economics Cameron Hepburn.

Professor Hepburn said that in the longer-run gas is "dead" without the wide-scale deployment of carbon capture and storage technology or until some other technology is developed that allows fossil fuels to be burnt without releasing carbon emissions.

Read the Angela Macdonald-Smith and Mark Ludlow story in the Melbourne Age - “Gas industry facing death in zero-carbon future, warns expert.”