Climate change

The international scientific community considers the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change to be in progress. The greenhouse gases emitted by Snam’s operations are:

• carbon dioxide, produced in combustion processes and directly related to fuel consumption;
• methane, the main component of natural gas. Natural gas emissions are derived partly from normal plant operations and partly from discharges into the atmosphere caused by maintenance works or leaks.

Snam’s commitment to preventing climate change  is evident in the natural gas reduction target of 25% set for the 2025. Snam does it reducing natural gas emissions from its own plants through continuous monitoring and specialised gas recovery interventions. In 2018, for example, several interventions were carried out resulting in the recovery of 8.2 million cubic metres of natural gas (representing approximately 142,200 tonnes of CO_2eq avoided)  and various technologies were implemented to reduce natural gas emissions from the pneumatic equipment.

 Besides Snam gives its contribute against climate change by means of:

• developing plant infrastructure to increase natural gas use throughout Italy, offering millions of residents, businesses and production plants the opportunity to use an energy source with a low environmental impact;
• using natural gas as a primary energy source. The use of natural gas instead of oil products or coal is one of the most beneficial and feasible ways of reducing carbon dioxide emissions (CO₂) and can make a significant contribution to achieving the objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions;
• using electricity from renewable sources, in 2018, Snam increased the consumption of electricity produced from renewable sources, which passed from 35% in 2017 to 37% in 2018, thus avoiding emissions into the atmosphere of approx. 12,100 tonnes of CO_2eq (11,040 tonnes of CO_2eq with respect to those of 2017). The emissions avoided correspond to approximately 39% of total indirect Scope 2 emissions;
• promoting energy efficiency  through the installation of photovoltaic panels in building construction and through the activities of TEP;

Additionally, the gas system could facilitate the options of decarbonisation and renewable consumption thanks to the introduction into the network of:

• renewable gases, such as bio methane, bio syngas and "green" hydrogen, obtained from anaerobic digestion and biomass gasification technologies, electrolysis of renewable electricity;
• low carbon natural gas and hydrogen, obtained from technologies that capture carbon and then store or reuse it (CCS/CCU).

Besides, Snam participates to Climate Disclosure Project (CDP) questionnaire, CDP beeing one of the world’s most important non-for-profit organization, which assesses companies’ transparency in the disclosure of information on climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as in the management of water resources. In 2018, we entered in the A- list of the CDP.

Snam calculates indirect CO_2eq emissions through the Market Based (MB) approach, which gives a nil CO_2eq emission factor for energy consumption from renewable sources, and the Location Based (LB) approach, which instead considers an average CO_2eq emission factor of the national electricity grid. Emissions (calculated using the MB method) stood at 31,887 tonnes of CO_2eq (+10.9% compared with 2017), a lower rise compared with energy fees. In particular, the MB approach highlights the contribution to the reduction of emissions from the use of energy produced from renewable sources.


 

Snam plants - Emissions Trading (at 31.12.2018)

Before the Emissions Trading regulations on climate change came into effect, Snam had already undertaken initiatives to contain emissions using high-yield technologies and natural gas as the main fossil fuel in its plants. Natural gas is used almost exclusively as fuel in the emissions trading plants.