Global efforts to get rid of potent greenhouse gas menace heat up – Giving methane the slip

As waves of climate change woes buffet the world mercilessly, the zest to tackle the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions challenge is spurring global action, with attempts to combat methane being first on the agenda. The Western world is certainly at the forefront of the methane reduction task force, as other regions also make inroads and join the emissions battle in droves or are already part of the fight against climate change and methane menace.

With the end of another UN conference of the parties (COP), the stage is getting set to face the challenge of empowering the world to turn methane pledges into action and move toward a greener future.

This decade is often described as a crucial one for climate action with many believing that the UN COPs leading up to 2030 are defining tests of the global will to enhance ambition on curbing GHG emissions and enabling net zero action.

COP28 marked a pivotal milestone in the worldwide climate wins, as environmentalists celebrated the first-ever COP commitment in the final text to transition away from all fossil fuels.

The roadmap to reach the 1.5 °C Paris Agreement feat outlines this can be achieved by rapid and sustained cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions of 43% by 2030 and 60% by 2035 relative to the 2019 level. This entails a step up in curbing methane emissions by 2030 and reaching net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.

Methane, perceived to be among the world’s largest contributors to global warming and air pollution, is a greenhouse gas, with 28 times greater global warming potential than carbon dioxide, which is 84 times less potent than methane on a 20-year timescale.

With a 75% cut in methane emissions from fossil fuels being advocated by 2030, an analysis from the International Energy Agency (IEA) emphasized the need for more action, estimating the cost of tackling the methane footprint at around $170 billion.

The methane-slashing quest was boosted by around 200 governments agreeing to “substantially” reduce methane emissions by 2030 at COP28. In addition, Canada, the European Union, and the United States disclosed important legislative proposals to this end.

Countries are also signing up to the Global Methane Pledge, launched at COP26 by the European Union and the United States, to downsize global methane emissions by at least 30% compared to 2020 levels by 2030.

Furthermore, expectations of additional inroads in methane abatement stem from a commitment to methane reduction action initially made by 50 companies, representing more than 40% of global oil production, through the launch of the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter, which committed to net-zero operations by 2050 at the latest.

Azerbaijan, the host of COP29, joined the Global Methane Pledge initiative last year, however, the Climate Action Tracker (CAT) recently gave the country a ‘critically insufficient’ rating due to no net zero target; and anticipated rise in emissions by about 20% through to 2030.

With energy-related methane emissions already about 6% above 1990 levels and doubling down on fossil fuel extraction, thanks to plans to boost gas extraction by more than 30% over the coming decade, the combination is said to have served to weaken its climate target (NDC).

Bill Hare, CEO of CAT partner organization Climate Analytics, highlighted: “While Azerbaijan has a huge renewable resource, one that it could be deployed to create green hydrogen to export to the European Union, Europe’s hunger for fossil gas appears to be running the show. The EU could look at how it could fund an Azerbaijani transition to a low carbon economy.”

Since Azerbaijan’s biggest gas buyer is the European Union, the CAT recommends that the EU curbs its demand for gas and supports countries like Azerbaijan to transition to a low-carbon economy, instead of importing their gas.

Many non-government organizations (NGOs) are urging not just the United States and the European Union to help fund net zero capacity building in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, but also oil and gas companies to limit methane emissions while calling on for nations to require the same commitments from importers.

Following the proposal of the EU’s methane regulation for the energy sector in December 2021, as part of the proposals to deliver the European Green Deal, the EU Parliament adopted a position on a new law to reduce methane emissions from the energy sector, enabling the representatives from the European Parliament, the Council of the EU, and the European Commission to meet and hammer out a compromise agreement on the European Commission’s proposed regulation.

The new law, seen as the first piece of EU legislation aimed at curbing methane emissions, which covers direct methane emissions from oil, gas, coal, and biomethane once injected into the gas network, has officially become law, with the bloc’s 27-member states expected to begin its implementation in 2025.

At the end of September 2024, global leaders met in New York to discuss practical strategies to tackle methane emissions and opportunities for collaboration at an event organized by the International Energy Agency and Azerbaijan’s COP29 Presidency.

The government and industry can deliver their ambitious promises to slash methane emissions from the energy sector, based on the conclusions drawn by around 100 people, including ministers, top executives, and heads of international organizations, who attended the event during the United Nations General Assembly and Climate Week NYC.

Chaired by the IEA Executive Director and COP29 President-Designate, the event enabled participants to highlight the action plans that countries and companies were developing to reduce methane emissions from fossil fuels and ways in which financial institutions and greater regional collaboration could support the implementation of methane abatement pledges.

In addition, the ways the COP29 and upcoming COP30 climate conferences can build on recent efforts were contemplated, highlighting the important opportunity to incorporate methane into the next round of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement.

Fatih Biror, IEA Executive Director, remarked: “It has been very encouraging to see more attention focused on cutting methane emissions from fossil fuels, which are a key driver of climate change. If they are fully implemented, the pledges made by countries and companies in the past year could have a huge impact.

“Many solutions to tackle methane emissions are proven and cost-effective. Together with the COP29 Presidency, we will continue to support government and industry as they work to address this vital issue and turn promises into action.” 

Methane emissions, perceived to be responsible for around 30% of the rise in global temperatures since the Industrial Revolution, remained near a record high in the energy sector in 2023. As a result, the COP29 Presidency decided to build on the COP28 momentum by calling on parties to join the COP29 Declaration on Reducing Methane from Organic Waste to reduce methane in waste and food systems.

Mukhtar Babayev, COP29 President-Designate, pointed out: “Enhancing ambition and enabling action on methane is an important part of the COP29 Presidency’s plan to slow global warming this decade. We are determined to address methane emissions from all sources.”

New framework for methane action comes to light

The IEA, the United Nations Environment Programme’s International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO), and EDF also released a report outlining the comprehensive new framework that will be used to support and report progress by oil and gas companies towards the emissions and flaring targets they have set, including through the OGDC launched at COP28. The first independent assessment using the metrics from the report is planned for next year. 

EDF emphasizes that methane emissions and flaring from the industry’s operations remain at near-record levels, thus, the trio unveiled a comprehensive new framework to support and report progress made by oil and gas companies around the world toward urgently needed emissions reductions consistent with targets set out in the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter, which now has 54 signatories.

As it is widely believed that the OGDC is well-positioned to help the industry accelerate its efforts to tackle climate change, the independent methane accountability initiative was created by the IEA, IMEO, and EDF to provide oversight of efforts being made by the whole industry, track progress and help ensure companies deliver on their promises.

Fred Krupp, President of Environmental Defense Fund, noted:  “To achieve steep cuts in methane pollution, producers must make changes now. These investments take years to implement. This accountability framework will help assure that oil and gas companies deliver the necessary reductions in time. No one can wait until 2030 and wave a magic wand. We need to see progress every year, with companies showing their work along the way.”

The OGDC commitments, if achieved in full and on time, could cut upstream methane emissions by around 15% by 2030, and should all of the top 100 producing companies, including the OGDC signatories do the same, upstream oil and gas methane emissions would be cut globally in half by 2030.

“Recent commitments, such as the OGDC, represent a tangible step forward for oil and gas companies looking to align their operations with the Paris Agreement. Now, companies must quickly transform their promises into action,” stated Birol.

“Methane emissions from fossil fuel operations are a major contributor to global warming, and tackling them is one of the fastest and lowest-cost ways to keep climate change in check. This new initiative will ensure accountability and transparency across the entire oil and gas industry and help deliver meaningful progress soon.”

The IEA estimates show that oil and gas operations resulted in close to 80 million tonnes of methane emissions in 2023 – equivalent to around 120 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Methane emissions have remained near these levels for over a decade. In addition, nearly 150 bcm of natural gas was flared worldwide in 2023.

As a result, a critical test of the oil and gas industry’s commitment to climate action is encapsulated in reducing methane emissions and flaring because mitigation opportunities are cost-effective, and controlling leaks improves operational efficiency, making it even more important for the OGDC to fulfill its potential to accelerate efforts from the whole oil and gas industry to help tackle climate change.

Inger Andersen, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UNEP, said: “The warming climate is harming human health, food systems and natural habitats, bringing enormous cost to societies. Cutting methane emissions is a crucial way to reduce these impacts as the clean energy transition continues. Progress on these commitments in this decade must be a top priority.”  

The new framework looks at the detailed plans of oil and gas companies, with attention to year-over-year improvement in planning and execution, providing much-needed transparency for financial institutions, government ministries, commercial gas buyers, NGOs, and the public, underlining that reporting should follow protocols in the Oil & Gas Methane Partnership, which is seen as the only comprehensive measurement-based international reporting framework for the sector.

According to EDF, transparency on the emissions levels and actions taken to address them will be crucial for the industry to assure stakeholders of the progress level, thus, empirical methane emissions, data using robust measurement standards and protocols, such as those established by the OGMP 2.0.

The data, combined with the increasing capacity of monitoring emissions through new remote sensing instruments, such as EDF’s MethaneSAT and Carbon Mapper’s Tanager Satellite, will help ensure the accountability of commitments.

The 25 metrics which are part of a comprehensive and transparent snapshot of the oil and gas sector’s progress in meeting its commitments, cover emissions reductions and investments in clean energy, methods for achieving these targets, and the evaluation of how companies publicly disclose and report information relevant to achieving their OGDC commitments.

“By combining transparency and accountability with cutting-edge data, it aims to make methane emissions from the oil and gas sector visible and quantifiable, engage emerging and developing economies to address methane leakage in domestic oil and gas production, and push for stronger government policies and regulations on methane purchase and trade policies worldwide,” outlined EDF.

Given the uneven advances countries and operators have made toward curbing methane,  the United States and the European Union are being urged to help fund capacity building in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa to assist oil- and gas-producing states and national oil companies cut methane. Eni is one of the more recent oil and gas operators to disclose its methane ambition and progress, expressing its determination to slash its methane slip and strengthen reporting in its first-ever report about the firm’s methane footprint.

The Italian player’s direct methane emissions were cut by more than half in the 2018–2023 period and the oil major made a 95% cut in fugitive methane emissions and an 86% reduction in methane intensity across upstream operations in 2023 based on its 2014 levels. The icing on the methane menace curbs cake is a 20% cut in the upstream business’ methane emissions from 2022 to 2023. The firm is working toward zero methane emissions by 2030.

Eni’s report comes shortly after the United States Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM), secured federal funding in support of research and development projects that help reduce methane and other GHG emissions from undocumented orphaned wells (UOWs) across the country.

The tools to curb the methane footprint are also being pursued by the World Bank, which recently launched a program to finance methane abatement projects and provide policy support to governments; philanthropies are supporting efforts to boost methane transparency and create roadmaps and accountability frameworks; and the Energy Emissions Modeling and Data Lab is developing open-access models and tools to back better emissions accounting across supply chains.

Since methane science is mostly concentrated in North America and Europe, this is seen as an obstacle to global methane reduction, thus, it is important to develop this capacity in other countries as well, especially in those that plan to continue to produce oil and gas for decades.

Analysts are adamant that government agencies and philanthropies need to fund new research centers at universities in countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia with close links to NOCs to create strong momentum for methane reductions in the oil and gas sector to accelerate and sustain progress by developing new centers of excellence for methane science around the world.

The data collected by satellites could be used to fill in the existing gaps in disclosures to avoid discrepancies, such as the ones in the existing oil and gas companies’ reports, which indicate that methane emissions were 95% lower than the IEA’s estimate for 2023, while emission levels reported by countries were about 50% lower.

The Environmental Defense Fund recently launched one such satellite – MethaneSAT, which will circle the Earth 15 times a day to measure changes in methane concentrations. The data should then be used for various purposes, including region comparisons.

The Switzerland-based Daphne Technology’s new carbon credit methodology to reduce methane emissions from internal combustion engines using a methane-rich fuel has won approval from Gold Standard, after the global carbon pricing market hit almost $100 billion in revenue last year, making a case for carbon credits potential to propel climate action forward.

While the shipping and maritime industry’s engine manufacturers pursue the development of technologies to eventually eliminate the methane slip from the combustion process, as is the case with engines powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG), it is believed that switching maritime engines from oil to LNG has the potential to significantly lower emissions.

Since methane brings a greenhouse effect into play, it is believed that the methane slip needs to be tightly controlled to make the fuel more environmentally friendly.

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Note: The article was written by Melisa Cavcic, Senior Editor at Offshore Energy, in collaboration with Dragana Nikse, Editor at Offshore Energy.

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