Mr. Tim Gould:

I thank the Deputy for his questions. China highlights a number of the areas that are important. China has been investing heavily in renewables but it is also investing heavily in natural gas infrastructure. That brings me to the question of what are the environmental credentials of natural gas. One can look at that in different ways. In terms of combustion emissions, gas has no particulate emissions. That is one of the reasons it is preferred to coal. In the Chinese context, and in some other contexts where the Deputy is concerned about air quality and likewise in terms of sulphur emissions, those are negligible for gas but quite significant for coal. Gas emits some nitrous oxide when combusted but relative to oil products, which are the main source in that respect, the share of gas in nitrous oxide emissions worldwide is around 10%. In terms of carbon dioxide, CO2, combustion emissions, and it depends on the qualities concerned, there is something of the order of a 40% reduction from coal to gas but there is the issue of methane emissions-----