Methane concentrations in the atmosphere rises, and the oil and gas industry is responsible for nearly a third of global methane emissions. The greenhouse gas is 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over its first 20 years in the atmosphere, and it is responsible for a quarter of the temperature increase that has already occurred. At COP28, the United Nations’ annual climate conference taking place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the United States announced that it finalized regulations to tackle this urgent problem.
On Saturday, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule to reduce methane emissions from the US oil and gas industry, which accounts for about 12 percent of global methane emissions from the sector. Methane is the main component of natural gas, and it leaks from every phase of oil and gas production, from extraction to transportation to refining. The new rule requires oilfield companies to monitor for leaks, fix them immediately and phase out the practice of burning off natural gas in the atmosphere – a process called flaring. They must also minimize venting, the deliberate release of natural gas, during certain processes. The rule allows third parties, including environmental and watchdog groups, to monitor oil and gas sites and report violations.
The EPA estimates that the long-awaited reign will prevent 58 million tonnes of methane emissions between 2024 and 2038 – reduction equivalent to taking 28 million cars off the road each year. Ali Zaidi, the White House’s national climate adviser, said the rule would cut nearly 2 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, which the Biden administration has committed to halving by 2030.
The rule will help to “close that gap even further and move[e] us along the trajectory we need to be on,” Zaidi said at a press conference at Expo City in Dubai, where world leaders and climate negotiators gathered to hammer out new climate deals. “Even as we seek to phase out our dependence on fossil fuels, we must work to clean up existing operations quickly and rigorously, and today’s announcement does just that.”
The International Energy Agency estimates that more than two-thirds of the methane emitted from fossil fuel operations could be eliminated. The requirements in the new EPA regulation will help achieve those reductions. They are also expected to have profound effects on public health. Nearly 18 million people live within a mile of an oil and gas field in the US, breathing in toxic chemicals released along with methane. Proximity to oil and gas sites is linked to a multitude of health effectsincluding lower lung function, high-risk pregnancies and preterm birth.
“It’s especially important to recognize that much of that public health burden in the United States falls on low-income communities and Black and brown communities,” said Rachel Cleetus, a policy director and chief economist for the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists. “On both fronts — public health and climate — it’s a win.”
The rule from the Biden administration is one of several methane-related announcements at COP28. Separately, COP28 President Sultan Al-Jaber, who is also the head of the UAE’s national oil company, announced that 50 oil companies responsible for 40 percent of global oil production had signed a pledge to reduce emissions directly attributable to their operations are linked, to reduce by 90 percent. . The companies include ExxonMobil, Shell and BP, as well as the national oil companies of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Brazil and about two dozen other countries. Al-Jaber has positioned himself as a dealmaker who can bring oil and gas companies to the table and convince them to make or strengthen climate pledges. “Methane is the low-hanging fruit,” Al-Jaber said at a summit announcing the pledges. “It’s an easy and quick way.”
In collaboration, the International Energy Agency, the United Nations Environment Program, Bloomberg Philanthropies and a group of other nonprofits have launched a new effort to track oil and gas companies’ methane emissions. The Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit organization that has produced a body of research on methane emissions from the oil and gas sector, plans to launch a $90 million satellite that will track emissions from fossil fuel production sites around the world. Data from the satellite will be made available “to every person on the planet who has access to the Internet,” Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, said on a press call.
“We need comprehensive, real-time awareness of specific sources of methane,” Krupp said. “Getting that information is indispensable to holding the oil and gas industry accountable for the promises they have made.”
Other environmental groups rejected such pledges as “A trojan horse for Big Oil and Gas greenwash” because none of the corporate commitments announced so far address the emissions that come from burning fossil fuels. Cleetus, the Union of Concerned Scientists economist, warned that corporate commitments were voluntary and insufficient. “This is an industry that has actively fought against climate action,” she said.
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Companies have an economic incentive to reduce methane emissions. The natural gas that does not leak away can be used to power equipment on site or sold on the market. In fact, the EPA expects an estimated $820 to $980 million worth of natural gas to be recovered each year as a result of its new rule. Jason Arceneaux, president of ARC Energy, a Louisiana-based company that works with oil and gas companies to reduce methane emissions, told Grist that operators are increasingly seizing those cost savings. They also respond to market signals, he said.
“The ultimate belief of a lot of industry is that there are going to be carbon footprint measurements,” Arceneaux said. “Some of the customers in Europe and others want those measurements, so I think customers are driving that decision.”
This is the first year since the Paris Agreement was ratified in 2016 that countries have formally measured their progress against the climate goals they agreed to – a process referred to in negotiating parlance as the “global stocktaking”. Most countries’ obligations only quantify carbon dioxide reductionsbut negotiators are beginning to include the need to include specific targets for methane and other greenhouse gases in national emission reduction pledges.
The EPA’s methane rule is also being finalized as climate negotiators determine whether all 198 countries that are at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change can agree to language on the transition from fossil fuels. Options include “phasing out” or “phasing out” of fossil fuel use or the “substitution” of renewable energy for fossil fuels.
“We cannot, at this moment when the climate crisis is spiraling out of control, avoid addressing the root cause,” Cleetus said. “It’s not just emissions, but it’s the use of fossil fuels, and we can’t dodge that issue. That is the essence of it.”
