'Europe is Good at Gas': Shell Lobbied EU to Prefer Gas Over Renewables

International energy giant Shell lobbied the European Union to opt for the use of natural gas instead of striving toward renewable energy, the Guardian reported citing private correspondence.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to documents obtained by the newspaper, the key part of the EU agreement on gas emissions reached in October 2014 was proposed by Shell lobbyists back in 2011.

Under the deal struck in October, EU countries agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030. However, the United Kingdom resisted imposing individual targets on each member state.

Shell representatives said that a gas expansion strategy would help Europe to save 500 billion euros ($542.8 billion) in its transition to a low carbon energy system, according to the documents.

"Gas is good for Europe, and Europe is good at gas," Shell upstream executive director Malcolm Brinded allegedly wrote in a letter to Jose Manuel Barroso, who served as European Commission head until November 2014.

Royal Dutch Shell is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company, the fourth by revenue in the world as of 2014. Most of the company's operations are focused on gas exploration.

Natural gas is considered to be a cleaner energy source than coal. However, research by a group of scientists published in Nature magazine in October 2014 found that a broader use of natural gas would spur carbon emissions globally, contributing to an acceleration in climate change.