Environmental Impacts of Shale Gas Development in China: Assessment and Regulation

This book features a comprehensive analysis of the development of shale gas resources in China, with a focus on the potential environmental impacts that may result. China has the world’s largest shale gas resources, which it is keen to develop to alleviate air pollution and successfully transition to a low-carbon energy future. However, one significant obstacle standing between the ambition and reality is the potentially serious environmental impacts of shale gas production. 

This book offers a systematic assessment of these potential impacts, including the risk of water contamination, ecological disruption due to the huge consumption of water and methane leakage. It presents valuable first-hand data collected from the authors’ fieldwork in Sichuan and Chongqing and the latest information on China’s current shale gas operations and also includes a set of models and methods developed to quantify the impacts.

It allows readers to gain a deeper understanding of environmental regulatory management systems regarding shale gas production in China by examining whether the existing monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems and environmental regulations can effectively prevent adverse impacts from shale gas production.

Providing a detailed study of shale gas development in China based on an unprecedented primary dataset, the book is a valuable resource for scholars, engineers and students who are interested in the energy development and environmental risks. 

Meiyu Guo is a lecturer in the Department of Geography at Hong Kong Baptist University and a research fellow at the Asia Energy Study Centre. She studies environmental impacts of energy development, with a focus on the production of shale gas. She has collected valuable first-hand data through fieldwork in shale gas fields in China and the USA.

Jianliang Wang is an associate professor in the School of Economics and Management at China University of Petroleum, Beijing, and the vice director of Research Center for China's Oil and Gas Industry Development. His main research interest includes resources availability of fossil fuels and environmental impacts of unconventional gas resources.