LNG project fuels rise in greenhouse emissions: Report

The PNG liquefied natural gas (LNG) project has increased the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to findings by the Climate Change and Development Authority (CCDA).
CCDA staffer Jason Paniu said the levels of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and water vapour emissions by the energy industry had increased by 47 per cent since 2000.
“The increase in gas emission by the industry is due especially to the demands of the PNG LNG project,” he said at the national greenhouse gas inventory management system workshop on Monday.
Paniu said the increase was due to the rise in leakage of gas from pressurised equipment like the LNG pipeline and refining and manufacture of fuels.
“The increase in the emission of greenhouse gases in 2015 is because of the LNG project,” he said.
“Emissions from electricity generation increased slightly in 2000 and 2004 due to the increase in electricity demand. It remained constant from 2005 to 2014, then increased rapidly from 2014 to 2015 due to the LNG project.”
Meanwhile, CCDA acting general manager Alfred Rungo says getting data is a challenge for the national greenhouse gas inventories project.
He told the workshop that organisations did not provide information to his officers when requested.
“It is not easy to collect data,” Rungol said in response to an international expert’s question on why some gas emissions only had estimates.
“Organisations will not just give data.”
Rungol said some of the information his office needed was treated as “confidential”, but in other cases, organisations were not willing to share information.
CCDA data officer Larsen Daboyan said the country had a data management problem.