Cooperative agreements to stop leaks in pipelines crossing national borders in the EU, bans on routine flaring, and carbon intensity regulations for imported natural gas are just some of the creative approaches taken by the international community to mitigate emissions of the greenhouse gas methane. Delegates to COP30 gathered in Belém to continue their work on mitigating emission of this important non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gas.
Methane, the primary component in natural gas, is currently responsible for about a third of warming. It is much better at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, making it a potent greenhouse gas. A shorter residence time in the atmosphere means cutting methane emissions can reduce the atmospheric concentration fast. Cutting methane emissions is an effective short-term strategy in reducing atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases and is essential to keeping warming within the “safe range” temperature goal set forth in the Paris Agreement.
Methane talks at COP originate in 2021, when the Global Methane Pledge was launched at COP26 by the United States and the European Union. The pledge now has one-hundred and eleven signatories who together are responsible for 45% of global human-caused methane emissions. By joining the Pledge, countries commit to work together in order to collectively reduce methane emissions by at least 30% below 2020 levels by 2030.
This focused effort has generated meaningful progress on methane mitigation through technological improvements and regional cooperation. A recent report on global methane action by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) reflected this global progress on methane emissions but warned that this progress and promises made in this round of Nationally Determined Contributions, is not enough to meet the temperature targets in the Paris Agreement.
The report finds that the benefits of methane mitigation far outweigh the costs.
“Full implementation of these technically feasible reductions globally could prevent over 180,000 premature deaths and 19 million tonnes of crop losses each year by 2030. All fossil fuel mitigation could be deployed at just 2% of the sector’s 2023 income.”
At COP30 in Belém, Brazil, delegates from Brazil, China and the United Kingdom co-hosted a methane summit. At the summit, organizers launched the Super Pollutant Country Action Accelerator, an initiative to accelerate global action on methane and other non-CO₂ greenhouse gases. The accelerator provides financing and technical assistance to participating countries with the goal of driving rapid cuts in non carbon dioxide greenhouse gases like methane. The initial funding package was $25 million for the initial seven countries to speed implementation.
The initial seven countries, Britain, France, Canada, Germany, Norway, Japan and Kazakhstan, signed a statement vowing to achieve “near zero” methane emissions across the fossil fuel sector. Environmental advocates call the accelerator a climate change “emergency brake” and hope it will advance mitigation beyond the original participants.
Even as the world doubles down on mitigating methane emissions, the Trump Administration continues to cede the United States’s leadership role in methane mitigation. The Environmental Protection Agency announced over the summer its intention to extend the compliance deadline for the Biden-era Environmental Protection Agency Section 111 Methane Rule, which was announced last year at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The Section 111 Methane Rule requires oil and gas operators to stop the practice of routine flaring, in which excess natural gas collected during drilling is burned or vented directly to the atmosphere. The rule requires operators to install upgraded equipment that collects and stores excess gas rather than venting it. Excess gas captured has economic value and can be sold. Methane mitigation doesn’t just benefit the climate; it has been shown to have a meaningful impact on public health, through improved air quality.
The proposal to delay the compliance deadline for Section 111 was met with strong pushback from environmental and climate advocates, as well as residents of frontline communities tired of dealing with poor air quality from oil and gas operations in their backyards. At a public hearing on the proposal, more than seventy people testified in opposition, with a single representative from the oil and gas industry appearing to testify in support.
Despite the opposition from the public, from environmental advocates, and even from some members of the oil and gas industry who opposed the measure on the grounds of regulatory stability, the compliance deadline delay was formally enacted this week.
The delay in implementation follows the repeal of the methane fee earlier this year. The fee was the enforcement mechanism for the methane rule. Together, these two rollbacks mean people in the United States will be subjected to an additional year of unregulated harmful methane emissions from the oil and gas industry, a practice former Vice President Al Gore refers to as allowing companies to use the atmosphere as an open sewer.
Texas leadership has long held an oppositional posture toward federal air quality standards, but Texas residents depend on strong federal air quality regulations to keep our air clean and safe. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is still in the very early stages of developing a federally mandated state implementation plan for the methane rule, but historically the state has been reluctant to enact state-level air quality policy despite evidence of its benefits. The deadline for state implementation plans of the methane rule has also been delayed by a year.
The economic, public health, and climate change benefits of dealing with methane emissions are clear. Governments around the world are moving forward on methane mitigation, not because of their altruism, but because of the benefits to their people and their economies. Backing off of US federal methane policy now makes no sense.
As one of the world’s largest methane emitters (we’re number two in both emissions from all human activities and emissions from abandoned facilities) it’s time for the US to get serious about methane mitigation.