After nearly a decade of climate-driven volatility, the global natural gas industry entered 2025 with a new mantra: pragmatism. At last week’s Gastech, the sector’s flagship annual trade fair, calls for “energy realism” echoed across panels.

As Brazil prepares to host the COP30 climate summit in November, Gastech exuded optimism about surging demand from AI and data centers, and the central role gas is set to play. Energy security and long-term contracts have eclipsed climate as the industry’s dominant concern.

The sector’s exuberance flies in the face of mounting mid-term risks. The European Union may have substituted its Russian piped gas dependence for LNG from the U.S., now the world’s top supplier, but policy direction could change again if the Democrats return to power. Meanwhile, Moscow is building bridges to Asia, seeking buyers willing to fend off Western concerns in return for affordable long-term contracts – which likely weakens the demand picture for new American projects.

Those concerns are set aside for now as the gas industry looks to change the narrative after a tumultuous few years. After all, only a year ago, before Trump entered the White House, U.S. LNG export licenses were on pause and most G7 governments pledged to phase out all fossil fuels, while major media heavily criticized oil and gas. The new exuberance has opened the importers’ checkbooks, but what has fundamentally changed?