Although today brought 'good news' for investors in that the UK Environment Agency hasgiven the go ahead to Cuadrilla to frack at Preston New Road... all that's left is for Secretary of State approval and there's nothing else stopping the next stage.
However, today's step toward eventual production was negated by the National Infrastructure Assessment that makes clear that in the UK "Heating must no longer be provided by natural gas, a fossil fuel".
https://www.nic.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/CCS001_CCS0618917350-001_NIC-NIA_Accessible.pdf
*Relevant info on natural gas is in chapter 2 - snipped bits here:
[It also highlights the most important future challenges. Heating must no longer be provided by natural gas, a fossil fuel.]
[…even with emissions almost eliminated from power generation and waste, the UK cannot achieve its emissions targets without transitioning away from using natural gas, a fossil fuel, for heating. The UK must now address this problem.]
[Even with emissions almost eliminated from power generation, the UK cannot achieve its emissions targets while relying on natural gas, a fossil fuel, for heating. Delivering a low cost, low carbon heating system is the major outstanding challenge. But the electricity system represented just such a challenge ten years ago. There are actions that the UK can and should take now. As a first step, improving the energy efficiency of the UK’s buildings will mitigate some of the emissions from heat. In the meantime, the evidence base must be built up to make decisions on heat in future. The safety case for using hydrogen as a replacement for natural gas should be established, followed by trials for hydrogen at a community scale and alongside carbon capture and storage.]
[In the 2020s, decisions will be required on whether the gas network should be maintained and converted, or phased out.]
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