GASLIGHTING: Financing fossil gas power is leading Europe’s energy transition astray

The report argues that financial institutions are hindering Europe's energy transition by providing hundreds of billions of dollars in support to fossil gas power producers and developers. It highlights a significant gap between the need to phase out gas by 2035 to align with a 1.5°C trajectory and the current trend of developing over 60 GW of new gas capacity. The document identifies a lack of robust sectoral policies among top banks and investors, which allows for continued corporate-level financing of gas-intensive utilities and the development of new base load plants, often as replacements for coal.

• Between 2019 and 2022, banks provided over US$314 billion in financial services to the European gas power industry, with the majority of this support occurring at the corporate level rather than as project-specific financing.
• As of November 2022, investors held US$200 billion in Europe's primary gas power producers and developers, with BlackRock identified as the largest single investor, holding US$22.1 billion.
• There is a significant risk of stranded assets in Europe, as over 63 GW of new gas power capacity is under development (11.4 GW under construction and 52 GW in pre-construction), which would need to be retired by 2035 to meet 1.5°C targets.
• The report argues that the 'transitional' label for gas in the EU taxonomy is misleading because gas plants can be 16 to 38 times more greenhouse gas intensive than European wind power.
• Methane leaks in the gas supply chain significantly diminish the climate benefits of gas over coal; if leakage exceeds 4%, gas-fired electricity is more harmful to the climate over a 20-year period than coal.
• Most European utilities lack comprehensive transition plans for a gas phase-out by 2035, often relying on unproven or inefficient technologies like Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) or 'green hydrogen' to justify continued gas use.
• A substantial portion of new gas developments (over 18 GW) are intended to replace former coal plants, which the report claims merely replaces one type of stranded fossil fuel asset with another.
• Sectoral policies for gas power are virtually non-existent among top financial institutions; of the 25 banks reviewed, only three (La Caixa Group, Société Générale, and HSBC) have any criteria to exclude gas power projects, and none exclude financing to gas power developers.

APA

Maraval, C. (2023). GASLIGHTING: Financing fossil gas power is leading Europe’s energy transition astray. Reclaim Finance. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/2023-04-05-GASLIGHTING_FOSSIL-GAS-POWER-REPORT.pdf

Chicago

Maraval, Claire. GASLIGHTING: Financing fossil gas power is leading Europe’s energy transition astray. Reclaim Finance, 2023. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/2023-04-05-GASLIGHTING_FOSSIL-GAS-POWER-REPORT.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Maraval |first1=Claire |title=GASLIGHTING: Financing fossil gas power is leading Europe’s energy transition astray |publisher=Reclaim Finance |date=April 2023 |url=https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/2023-04-05-GASLIGHTING_FOSSIL-GAS-POWER-REPORT.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{maraval2023gaslighting, author = {Maraval, Claire}, title = {{GASLIGHTING: Financing fossil gas power is leading Europe’s energy transition astray}}, institution = {Reclaim Finance}, year = {2023}, month = apr, url = {https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/2023-04-05-GASLIGHTING_FOSSIL-GAS-POWER-REPORT.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }