LPG World editorial: Feeling the heat

Environmentalists have reached boiling point over a perceived sabotaging of climate policy, but are burying their heads in the sand on heat pumps' drawbacks

Europe's LPG industry has become the focus of some unwanted attention this month, after being accused of insidious lobbying tactics to undermine attempts to decarbonise the region's heating sector.

The allegations first appeared on environmental activism and journalism site Desmog, founded as an antidote to "global warming misinformation campaigns", on 7 March. This was then picked up by UK newspaper The Guardian on the same day, before another article appeared on US-based political news site Politico on 15 March — in reference to a critical report called "The gas lobby's boiler battle" from a group of environmental NGOs.

To distil their message, European LPG association Liquid Gas Europe (LGE) has been accused of underhand lobbying of EU policy makers, casting itself as a champion of rural communities in a bid to weaken EU plans to phase out gas boilers. This was in the run up to the European Parliament's vote on amendments to the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, now approved and opening the door to "hybrid" systems running on renewable LPG and DME.

The reviews are withering. The LPG sector, "a branch of the fossil fuel industry that receives little scrutiny", has been pressuring the EU to block plans to ban boilers as "an existential threat to their $40bn business", the Desmog article says. The Guardian article makes reference to "leaked emails" from the LGE to EU policy makers, pushing the mendacious narrative further, despite the emails complying with EU lobbying laws and being freely accessible. They claim the LPG industry is looking to introduce loopholes in order to protect its interests.

The LGE's Rural Futures campaign also finds itself in the crosshairs, undeclared in the lobbying register and "posing as a grassroots campaign", the report says. As does MEP Sean Kelly's involvement with an LGE event in June 2022 and his informal meetings with the LGE in Strasbourg — "passing conversations that didn't influence the policy process", Kelly's assistant told Politico. "I completely reject the line of questioning that suggests I have a special relationship with the gas industry... I have no connection with any industry and I was guided by the priorities of the political group I was representing," Kelly told Politico.

Electric dreams

The reports come off as alarmist and sensationalist, glossing over facts and making prosaic advocacy efforts seem sinister. Perhaps most egregiously, they fail to address the problem with the alternative to gas boilers — heat pumps — nor the arguments put forward not only by the LGE but by other non-fossil fuel advocacy groups and environmental activists on why they are not viable for a large proportion of buildings. Electrification is not always possible, especially in older, rural buildings, as the pumps' effectiveness drops and costs spiral. They also place added burden on already under-strain power grids as electricity demand surges. What is needed is "a mixed technology approach… including renewable liquid gases like renewable LPG and DME", LGE general manager Ewa Abramiuk-Lete says.

Without getting into a debate on the ethics of private-sector lobbying or the LPG industry's motives, what you are left with is a straightforward technological comparison between renewable fuel boilers and heat pumps. Many are now beginning to see, including those working in the renewables sector, that heat pumps are not the silver bullet governments and environmentalists had hoped they would be. The LPG industry, for better or worse, is advocating a mixed technology approach and targeting buildings where heat pumps will not work. It seems obvious that unless better solutions are found, renewable fuels must be included in the heating package. Environmental campaigners meanwhile must try to embrace the fossil fuel industry's attempts to decarbonise. Demonising these efforts serves nobody.