Companies in the oil and gas sector hardly know how to limit the emission of the strong greenhouse gas methane. Emissions from coal mines also remained roughly flat last year.
Methane emissions from the energy sector were barely lower last year than at their peak in 2019, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reports in a report published Tuesday. rapport.
In order to achieve global climate goals, much less methane must be released into the air quickly. After CO2, methane is the most harmful greenhouse gas. It has accounted for about 30 percent of global warming since the industrial age.
According to the IEA, methane emissions from the energy sector can easily be reduced with existing techniques. For example, leaks in oil and gas infrastructure must be detected and sealed. In coal mines too, emissions can certainly be halved.
This often even generates money. In fact, natural gas is leaking from the wells and pipelines of energy companies. That natural gas can be sold for high amounts if it does not fly into the air.
With an investment of about 100 billion dollars (about 93.6 billion euros), oil and gas companies can reduce their methane emissions by three quarters before 2030. If they also stop flaring natural gas at oil wells, 200 billion cubic meters would be produced annually additional natural gas will be available to consumers and industry. That is more than six times the annual consumption of the whole of the Netherlands in 2022.
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Methane much stronger greenhouse gas than CO2
By the middle of the century, stopping these methane emissions would also save 0.1 degrees of global warming. Methane is a much stronger greenhouse gas than CO2, but it stays in the atmosphere for less time. Reducing emissions therefore yields relatively large and rapid climate gains.
It is therefore important that methane emissions do decrease quickly in the coming years, says IEA director Fatih Birol. He points out that oil and gas companies have made “massive profits” during the energy crisis. “Fossil fuel producers need to take steps and policymakers need to act — and they both need to do it quickly.”
About 150 countries have now joined an international pledge to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030. The European Union and the United States, among others, are introducing stricter rules for the oil and gas industry. Agriculture is also an important source of methane, through manure and the breath of cattle.
