COP28: Liquid Gas Industry’s Vital Role in Clean Cooking, Climate Solutions, and Sustainable Development By James Rockall, CEO & Managing Director, WLPGA
COP28 was gaveled to a close on the morning of 13th December after a long night of sometimes heated negotiations. These crucial meetings, hosted for the first time by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), came just after the release of the first Global Stocktake, the main mechanism through which progress under the Paris Agreement was assessed. COP28 provided a critical opportunity to collectively address the challenges of climate change and the Liquid Gas industry was happy to participate and do its part to make the talks a success.
Liquid Gas is a portable, clean and efficient energy source that is readily available to consumers around the world. Liquid Gas is primarily obtained from natural gas and oil production but is also produced increasingly from renewable sources. Its unique properties make it a versatile energy source which can be used in more than 1,000 different applications.
For the first time in the conference's extensive history, COP28 placed clean cooking at the forefront of discussions around climate change, environmental sustainability, carbon finance, investment, gender equality, food systems, and sustainable cities. This is the first time the global community acknowledged the importance of clean cooking in so many different and crucial areas of development and environmental impact. This issue was driven by the leaders of organisations such as the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) which during COP28 pledged up to 20 percent of AfDB’s future approved annual lending programmes for energy will be allocated toward clean cooking.
Many stakeholders openly acknowledged the role that Liquid Gas, including LPG, will play in achieving these objectives and noted that Liquid Gas is often the most available and most scalable solution, particularly in the Global South. Some cited the Indian example of the PMUY programme as a template for how to expand access to Liquid Gas throughout developing countries rapidly and at scale.
In the Global South Liquid Gas plays a pivotal role in reducing dependency on biomass for cooking and heating. It offers a clean, cost-effective, and portable energy solution to communities deprived of access to grid electricity. This transformative fuel humanises access to energy, creating substantial benefits for over a billion people, primarily women and girls, who reside in areas where reliance on unsustainable biomass and other hazardous fuels for cooking persists. This not only contributes to mitigating climate change but also enhances overall quality of life.
In the Global North Liquid Gas fuels thousands of applications from road transport to industrial facilities. Also, the promise of renewable Liquid Gas offers a pathway to a lower carbon future while leveraging existing infrastructure. Renewable Liquid Gas is created from renewable and waste materials – including various oils, agricultural residues, municipal solid waste and other vegetable matter as well as recycled carbon. Feedstocks are abundant and can be aligned with local market needs and availability of products.
As global stakeholders depart from Dubai, the Liquid Gas industry reiterates that it is committed to address the global challenge of climate change by working in cooperation within the UNFCCC process on the objectives laid out in the Paris Agreement. Through collective action we can ensure that Liquid Gas is recognised as a low carbon, available and accessible fuels which have a role to play in helping the global community address sustainable development and deploy solutions at every stage of the global energy transition.
View the WLPGA’s COP28 Session during the ICC’s “Climate Action is Everyone’s Business Forum” here: https://youtu.be/dHxyIKjERJU?si=za82Sr1Kb1Dp3gkG