Analysis of Lifecycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Natural Gas and Coal Powered Electricity

The analysis finds that while gas-fired power plants emit 58% less CO2 at the stack than coal, the lifecycle benefit is reduced to 24% when considering upstream emissions. This benefit varies wildly by production basin; gas from northeast Pennsylvania can significantly reduce GHG impacts, while gas from the Permian basin could potentially worsen them by 20% compared to coal. The report concludes that for natural gas to be compatible with net-zero goals, both aggressive upstream methane abatement and downstream carbon capture and storage (CCS) are required, noting that abated coal with CCS actually shows 37% lower emissions than abated gas with CCS due to the latter's persistent upstream methane and liquefaction emissions.

• When considering full lifecycle emissions for power generation in Vietnam, the relative GHG benefit of using U.S. average natural gas over Australian coal is approximately 24% using a 20-year global warming potential (GWP), despite gas-fired plants emitting 58% less CO2 from the stack.
• The climate impact of importing U.S. gas to replace coal varies significantly by production basin; depending on upstream methane leakage, the impact ranges from a 40% reduction in GHG to a 20% increase.
• U.S. natural gas is not demonstrably cleaner than the global average, meaning that displacing other gas sources with U.S. LNG does not guaranteed a decrease in global GHG emissions.
• Implementation of current U.S. EPA standards and guidelines is estimated to reduce upstream methane emissions by about 50%, but this only improves the overall lifecycle emissions of U.S. average gas exported to Vietnam by 13.5%, making it roughly 35% better than baseline Australian coal.
• In scenarios where both fuels utilize carbon capture and storage (CCS) and upstream methane abatement, abated coal results in 37% lower emissions than abated gas due to the remaining upstream methane and CO2 emissions associated with gas liquefaction and shipping.

APA

Feldman, L., & McCabe, D. (2024). Analysis of Lifecycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Natural Gas and Coal Powered Electricity. Clean Air Task Force. https://www.catf.us/resource/analysis-lifecycle-greenhouse-gas-emissions-natural-gas-coal/

Chicago

Feldman, Lesley, and David McCabe. Analysis of Lifecycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Natural Gas and Coal Powered Electricity. Clean Air Task Force, 2024. https://www.catf.us/resource/analysis-lifecycle-greenhouse-gas-emissions-natural-gas-coal/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Feldman |first1=Lesley |last2=McCabe |first2=David |title=Analysis of Lifecycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Natural Gas and Coal Powered Electricity |publisher=Clean Air Task Force |date=20 March 2024 |url=https://www.catf.us/resource/analysis-lifecycle-greenhouse-gas-emissions-natural-gas-coal/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{feldman2024analysis, author = {Feldman, Lesley and McCabe, David}, title = {{Analysis of Lifecycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Natural Gas and Coal Powered Electricity}}, institution = {Clean Air Task Force}, year = {2024}, month = mar, url = {https://www.catf.us/resource/analysis-lifecycle-greenhouse-gas-emissions-natural-gas-coal/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }