High and dry: stranded natural gas reserves and fiscal revenues in Latin America and the Caribbean
The global energy transition driven by compliance with the Paris Agreement objectives and technological change makes future gas demand, and therefore prices, uncertain. Years ago, natural gas has been thought as a potential bridge fuel to a net-zero energy system, since it emits less carbon dioxide during combustion than coal, historically the dominant source for electricity production globally. But recent research has shown that expanding supplies of natural gas may delay decarbonization, that climate benefits from gas depends on methane leakage rates, which tend to be underestimated , and that the role of natural gas as a bridge to a low carbon energy system is subject to the replacement of more polluting fossil fuels and the availability of technologies such as carbon capture and storage.