Oil and gas industry has failed to keep pledges to limit methane emissions; 'There's no excuse,' world agency says

Screen grab from thermographic video shows what appears to be
methane leaking from stacks. (James Turitto, Clean Air Task Force handout)

"In 2022, the global energy industry released into the atmosphere some 135 million tons of methane," report Gloria Dickie and Kate Abnett of Reuters. But "The fossil-fuel industry is failing to tackle methane emissions despite its pledges to fix leaking infrastructure, according to a report by the International Energy Agency. 'There is just no excuse,' IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said, adding that 'emissions are still far too high and not falling fast enough, especially as methane cuts are among the cheapest options to limit near-term global warming.'" Methane has much more greenhouse-gas effect than carbon dioxide, but dissipates in the atmosphere much more quickly.

Methane is the main component of natural gas, so if captured it can be sold as fuel. "The IEA said methane emissions from oil and gas alone could be reduced by three-quarters with existing technologies and modest investment of less than 3% of the $4 trillion windfall income gained by oil and gas companies worldwide last year," Reuters reports. "The economic incentives to make those reductions were huge last year," IEA's Chief Energy Economist Tim Gould told Reuters. "We had record natural-gas prices in many markets around the world. There was an extremely strong economic incentive to bring methane to market."

Over 100 companies "have pledged to cut global methane emissions by at least 30% from 2020 levels by the end of this decade . . . although major emitters, including China and Russia, have not," Reuters notes. "Dozens of oil companies have also voluntarily committed to reduce emissions." Georges Tijbosch, CEO of MIQ, which offers a methane-emissions certification standard, told Reuters, "There are a lot of pledges around, but what you need is a forcing mechanism."

"National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration physical scientist Lori Bruhwiler said rapid cuts to methane emissions are important, but deep carbon dioxide emission reductions must accompany them if the world is to avoid global warming exceeding 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) and unleashing more severe impacts," Reuters reports. Should the industry fails to address methane release, Bruhwiler added, "Will this make it tougher for us to meet 1.5? Absolutely."