A critical review on climate policy shifts and the increasing role of LNG as a transition fuel

The global energy transition presents a fundamental policy dilemma: how to reconcile rapid decarbonization with persistent energy poverty and economic development needs. This dual challenge of climate mitigation and energy poverty alleviation requires pragmatic policy solutions. The acceleration of global climate governance following the Paris Agreement has reshaped energy markets, regulatory institutions, and investment flows. This paper therefore advances a critical perspective that Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) can serve as a necessary and development-oriented transition fuel, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, when embedded within a structured decarbonization pathway by integrating climate science, energy systems, development economics and political economy perspectives. To tackle this dilemma, LNG has emerged as a contested “transition fuel,” as both a transitional solution and a structural risk within this transformation positioned between coal dependence and renewable energy expansion. Proponents argue that LNG reduces carbon intensity, improves air quality, enhances grid stability, and accelerates electrification in developing economies while critics contend methane leakage, lifecycle emissions, and long-lived infrastructure risk undermining climate targets consistent with limiting warming to 1.5 °C. The paper assesses whether LNG can serve as a transition fuel without undermining long-term decarbonization goals. This was conducted through reviewing of past works by different investigators, reports by  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), International Energy Agency, United Nations Environmental Programme, World Bank, and European Commission on liquefied Natural Gas. The review indicates that LNG’s legitimacy as a transition fuel depends on stringent methane regulation, time-bound infrastructure deployment, carbon capture integration, and differentiated pathways between advanced and developing economies. The review also highlights a justice dilemma: strict fossil fuel restrictions versus growth in low-income economies. The paper concludes that LNG can function as a transition fuel rather than a definitive climate solution, with its legitimacy contingent upon strict regulatory oversight and temporal constraints.