Efforts to reduce methane emissions have built up a head of steam, catalysed by pledges at COP28 as well as new policies and regulations.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas. Methane from fossil fuel operations, agriculture and other industries is responsible for around 30% of global warming, with the oil and gas industry estimated to account for up to a quarter of global emissions.
The IEA's latest edition of its Global Methane Tracker finds that the production and use of fossil fuels resulted in close to 120 million tonnes of methane emissions in 2023, up slightly from the 2022 total. Cutting these emissions is therefore critical.
150 countries have now signed the Global Methane Pledge to cut their collective methane emissions by at least 30% from 2020 levels by 2030. More than 50 oil and gas companies signed the Oil & Gas Decarbonisation Charter at COP28, which includes a pledge to reduce methane emissions to near zero by 2030.
Nearly 200 governments agreed at COP28 to “substantially” reduce methane emissions by 2030, while regulatory initiatives have been announced by Canada, the European Union and the USA. In December, a new initiative was launched by EDF, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the International Energy Agency, RMI and the UN Environment Programme’s International Methane Emission Observatory to provide transparency and accountability frameworks to help track and drive methane emission reductions from the oil and gas industry.
If all methane pledges made by countries and companies to date are implemented in full and on time, methane emissions from fossil fuels could be cut by 50% by 2030, according to the IEA. However, it points out that most pledges are not yet backed up by plans for implementation. The lack of reliable methane data is one of the main challenges in curbing methane emissions, according to energy consultancy Rystad Energy. “Reducing methane emissions is generally a more low-hanging fruit than cutting emissions of carbon dioxide, and therefore has the most promising potential for the energy sector in the short and medium term – provided the emissions are detected,” said Magnus Kjemphol Lohne, Senior Vice President of Global Emissions Research at Rystad Energy. “Scarce and low-quality methane data is one of the key challenges to curbing methane emissions.”
A growing number of state-of-the-art satellites monitoring methane leaks, such as the Environmental Defense Fund’s recently launched MethaneSAT, is making it easier to identify and address methane emissions.
MethaneSAT measures changes in methane concentrations as small as three parts per billion, focusing initially on oil and gas operations. It can detect and quantify small emissions over wide areas that other satellites cannot see, and can also pinpoint large emissions from single sources, to provide a complete picture of the methane problem.
In addition to identifying emission sources and rates for a given region, MethaneSAT will enable emission loss rates to be compared across major oil and gas regions worldwide and performance over time. Specially-developed analytics will trace those emissions back to their sources within those target regions.
“A 75% cut in methane emissions from fossil fuels by 2030 is imperative to stop the planet from warming to a dangerous level. I am encouraged by the momentum we’ve seen in recent months, which our analysis shows could make an enormous and immediate difference in the world’s fight against climate change,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said.
