Cleanest Fossil Fuel Tries to Eke Out a Future in Greener World

The natural gas industry is trying to up its green credentials as it bids to join electric cars and renewable power plants in a lower emissions future.

European energy companies spent years touting the role gas can play as a transition fuel to replace dirtier sources of round-the-clock power. Now they are increasingly promoting gas as a cleaner alternative to oil products in transportation and investing in technology to produce less polluting fuel.

“Natural gas will play a bigger role in a greener world,” Guy Smith, head of gas trading at Swedish utility Vattenfall AB, said Dec. 11. “It will ...