IGU – Advocating for Gas

Making gas advocacy an integral part of IGU’s Vision and Mission has been a key strategic development for the Union. Natural gas now has a more effective and consistent voice; and communications with stakeholders outside the industry – including policymakers and regulators, NGOs and the general public – have been improved.

IGU works to ensure that the benefits of natural gas, particularly its role in meeting the challenge of providing additional energy supplies and at the same time reducing emissions by replacing more polluting fuels, are widely appreciated. Moreover, gas is ideally suited to complement intermittent power generation from renewable sources and has an important role to play in a sustainable energy future.

Various initiatives have been developed to ensure IGU’s messages reach targeted audiences around the world. Attention was first focused on engaging with policymakers as detailed in the previous chapter. Then work began to reach out to institutional stakeholders and the general public with an advocacy campaign launched in 2010 during the Malaysian Presidency.

The first phase was to provide online resources to help members promote understanding and awareness about natural gas to stakeholders, and to join forces with other organisations to raise the profile of gas. The second phase developed a global vision and roadmap for natural gas which clearly defines the pathway natural gas can take as part of the world’s low-carbon energy future.

After revision of the Union’s Vision by the Council in Paris in 2015, work started to position IGU as the Global Voice of Gas and establish a sustainable means of funding strategic projects supporting gas advocacy. Now the focus is on stronger engagement and further development of an integrated and comprehensive outreach strategy.

Gas advocacy toolkit and GasNaturally

The centrepiece of phase one of the gas advocacy initiative was an online toolkit. Available free of charge via the IGU website, this allowed IGU members to be more effective advocates for the natural gas industry on a global level. There were five different presentations on the website which could be downloaded and tailored to suit different audiences and circumstances. They included advocacy messages, facts and figures, a report on gas and climate change mitigation, a report on the environmental issues associated with shale gas development and an overview of the shale gas sector. In each presentation, the theme of “CARES” (that of natural gas being a Clean, Affordable, Reliable, Efficient and Secure energy source) was predominant.

IGU also teamed up with six gas associations based in Europe to launch a joint advocacy programme called GasNaturally. This targeted the European Commission and Parliament with the aim of ensuring that natural gas was well represented in discussion of the future energy mix in Europe. The GasNaturally programme kicked off in 2012 and today has eight members (IGU plus Eurogas, GERG, GIE, the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers, Liquid Gas Europe, Marcogaz and NGVA Europe).

1. Estimated on the basis of gas demand growth multiplied by the average emissions benefit of switching from coal and or oil to natural gas or low-carbon gas. 2. Base case is aligned with IEA 2019 Stated Policies Scenario.

Global Vision for Gas

With the advocacy initiative underway, IGU started work on a global vision and pathway for natural gas development. The goal was to reaffirm and consolidate the role of natural gas – at times mistakenly perceived as a “transitional fuel” – as an integral part of the global energy system for the long term, and to build confidence in the future demand for gas across a variety of sectors.

A special report “Global Vision for Gas – The Pathway towards a Sustainable Energy Future” was prepared for presentation during the 25th World Gas Conference in Kuala Lumpur in 2012. This covered the merits of gas as a fuel, and provided a quantified and sustainable pathway of global energy use through to 2050. The pivotal role of natural gas, alongside other energy sources, was highlighted in terms of its affordability, reliability and role in economic development as well as its contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Key policy enablers to help realise the vision for gas were also enumerated across the different continents.

An important message of the report was and remains that natural gas is not just part of the long-term energy solution; its immediate wider deployment based on proven technologies can have a significant near-term impact on emissions and the quality of life.

Global Voice of Gas

IGU’s gas advocacy work was stepped up in the 2012-15 Triennium under the French Presidency by increasing cooperation with other international organisations through the development of strategic partnerships and the launch of the Global Voice of Gas project. The value members placed on this work was highlighted in a survey that was conducted in 2014 by the USA Vice Presidency, in which three-quarters of members said that IGU’s growing role in advocacy was of particular importance to them, but at the same time the message was clear that IGU needed to engage more and to dedicate more resources to the work.

Under the Global Voice of Gas project every aspect of IGU’s external communications was reviewed and a new strategic approach developed with the aim of raising the Union’s profile and generating greater media coverage of the benefits of natural gas. A framework of key global messages was established to better focus efforts, media training was introduced for the IGU leadership, the website was upgraded and a new format for publications was

Z Technologies and innovation in the gas sector have a transformative potential impact on global energy systems.

V IGU has steadily developed its digital presence and the website has been redesigned with additional interactivity.

designed. In parallel, IGU worked closely with an international communications agency to develop good relationships with journalists of global media outlets and to establish the Union as the Global Voice of Gas.

In the first phase of the project a Global Gas Portal accessed via the IGU home page was developed with the aim of making IGU the first point of call for people looking for information about gas, making it easy to find that information and allowing IGU to target specific audiences with compelling, engaging content. The Portal’s launch in May 2014 was supported by a six-month digital and social media outreach campaign, which was successful in generating new traffic.

Moving into the 2015-18 Triennium under the USA Presidency, when the Strategic Communications and Outreach Task Force was set up to provide strategic direction to IGU’s advocacy and outreach work, the next phase of the Global Voice of Gas project was to develop a campaign around the issue of clean air and tie this into an integrated public affairs and government relations strategy.

It was decided to build on IGU’s longstanding involvement in the UN Climate Change Conferences and focus the campaign on COP21 in Paris at the end of 2015. Work started on preparing the report Case Studies in Improving Urban Air Quality looking at Beijing, Istanbul, New York and Toronto.

Prior to the launch of the IGU report, the International Energy Agency published its World Energy Outlook 2015, which recognised that greater use of gas in power generation and transport helps reduce emissions and improve urban air quality. IGU’s response to the IEA report, welcoming its positive outlook for gas, was widely distributed and received excellent coverage.

Meanwhile, the COP21 media campaign was being developed around the release of Case Studies in Improving Urban Air Quality in a webcast to which both media and the industry were invited. A page for the report was created on the IGU website showing the highlights of the research into switching to gas from more polluting fuels. Sponsored links to the report were placed near contextually relevant media content on leading business, news and finance sites. A special edition of the IGU Newsletter was also distributed.

A significant result of the campaign was an exclusive interview with the Financial Times on improving urban air quality. An article was published on FT.com on December 3, 2015 and in the Asian, European, UK, Middle Eastern and North American printed editions the following day. The report was also covered in key international energy trade publications, while its main messages were covered in Chinese media focusing on energy and the environment.

IGU has since published three more urban air quality reports – in 2016, 2018 and 2019 – each backed up with a media

campaign coordinated by the public affairs team.

IGU has steadily developed its website and social media channels such as the Twitter account (@IGU_News) and YouTube channel. Initiatives have included a webcast series organised by the Marketing and Communications Committee to give a voice to players and discuss issues that matter to the gas industry, and a series of professionally-produced short interviews with leading energy experts such as Fatih Birol, IEA’s Executive Director, on YouTube.

Increasing discussion of the role of natural gas in the energy mix has moved the issue of fugitive methane emissions up the agenda. IGU has addressed this head-on, striving to ensure that the facts and premises of the debate are accurate and properly understood with a series of reports and by joining the Methane Guiding Principles partnership as a supporting organisation.

At the beginning of the Korean Presidency, IGU unveiled a Strategic Communications and Outreach Plan setting out an overall strategy for the Union’s advocacy and outreach. The plan is regularly updated and is an important step in further enhancing IGU’s advocacy work, to solidify the Union’s recognition and credibility as the Global Voice of Gas. As part of the plan, IGU’s public affairs team has developed a comprehensive key messaging document, which contains approved messages on the most critical subjects.

In 2018, the Global Gas Report was introduced showing a broader global gas development covering the full gas value chain including LNG. The report was expanded in 2019 with a special chapter dedicated to technology and the work of the gas industry in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and coupling the electricity and gas systems. The year after, the GGR 2020 also covered the introduction of gases like biomethane, biogas, synthetic gas and hydrogen into the current infrastructure, which provides a new way to continue the decarbonisation of gas industry.

In 2019, a more flexible and customised public web portal was launched using the WordPress publishing platform, which facilitated links with social media campaigns and improved traffic to the IGU website. Visitor numbers and the downloading of reports increased, while the number of followers of the YouTube and Twitter media channels grew. The project continued with the integration of the Members Portal on the same host and tool, providing new services to IGU members. The Members Portal was launched in April 2021.

In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic meant that all face-to-face meetings were suspended and virtual meetings using Zoom and Teams were adopted, which allowed IGU to continue its operations in teleworking mode. As public events were cancelled or postponed, IGU responded to the challenge by developing a webinar tool personalised with the IGU brand and logo. This allowed IGU to continue advocacy activities and present reports.

Starting in June 2020, the IGU Magazine was transformed from a printed publication twice a year to a quarterly digital magazine called Global Voice of Gas. For the third quarter of the year, and aligned with the IGU Council meeting, there is also a printed version distributed to members.

IGU’s international communications agency was also changed. Ketchum served IGU well with strategic advocacy plans and counsel between 2016 and 2020, when Natural Gas World (NGW) took over the role. NGW also took over the magazine production after a long and productive relationship with ISC in London.

By the end of 2020, with Matthew Doman as interim Public Affairs Director, the Public Affairs function was reintegrated into the responsibilities of the Secretariat as part of preparations for the setting up of the new permanent Secretariat in London.

The world was changing rapidly with the pandemic and in 2021 the economic recovery plan for resuming activities put much more accent on the climate change fight than ever. Fulfilling the Paris Agreement and 2050 climate goals was driving new investments and IGU adopted a new policy position during its May Executive Committee meeting adopting the renewable gases as part of IGU’s scope in its Vision and acknowledging that energy supply needs to be available, secure and reliable while climate change presents significant risks and that gas (now gases) are and will be a major contributor to the solution to face these challenges.

Going forward

The new IGU policy position on climate change and the role of gas in the future sustainable energy mix will align IGU with the new requirement from society, maintain gas capacity and advance gas as a key contributor to improving quality of life.

The next few years will be vital in determining the energy mix for decades to come. The aim of IGU’s advocacy work is to improve perceptions, influence opinion leaders and ultimately drive legislation and investment decisions. The new scope now includes broader communications with reports and social media amplifications, outreach activities with partners and advocacy to policymakers in different events.