Copenhagen not just about the environment

PARIS, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- The environmental measures considered for the Copenhagen climate change summit in December would suppress natural gas demand significantly, a report indicates.

World leaders meet in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December to discuss the successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

The International Energy Agency in an early draft of its World Energy Outlook says that if environmental policies envisioned for Copenhagen are enacted, the global demand for natural gas would plummet, the Financial Times reports.

The unauthorized IEA report concludes gas demand would drop more than 15 percent by 2030 under the Copenhagen emissions regime. That, subsequently, would make Europe less reliant on Russian gas and create a self-sufficient U.S. gas market.

Without Copenhagen, Europe would need more gas from Russia, which is not expected to increase its gas supplies before 2015, the report said.

A January row between Kiev and Moscow over gas exposed vulnerabilities in the European energy sector, prompting a push to increase energy security.

Christophe de Margerie, the chief executive of Total, said world leaders need to consider more than just the environment when they meet in Copenhagen.

"Don't go to Copenhagen only with your concern about the environment," he warned.