Countries Vow to Build a Global Market for Lower-Emission Natural Gas
(Bloomberg) -- The UK, Japan, Germany and other countries on Friday signed a declaration aimed at supporting a global market for natural gas that’s been certified to have lower methane emissions, a potential boost to oil companies eager to monetize investments in capturing the planet-warming pollution.
The statement, signed in Belém, Brazil, just days before the start of the COP30 climate conference, also could benefit gas buyers that want to differentiate between the most- and least-polluting supplies of the fuel.
Ed Miliband, the UK’s secretary of state for energy security and net zero, cast the declaration as part of a broader push to clamp down on emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, and help meet a goal of capping global warming at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
“The way to keep 1.5C alive is to act on methane because it can have really real short-term benefits,” Miliband said. “We have been working for the last six months with other countries to say: ‘Look, can you step up too?’”
The accord, also signed by France and the gas-producing nations of Canada, Kazakhstan and Norway, is being supported by the European Commission, the International Energy Agency and the Latin American Energy Organization.
The signatory countries said they will work to develop a marketplace for near-zero-intensity methane, with the goal of announcing and reporting progress on the effort next year.
The governments also agreed to support implementing “robust” systems for measuring, monitoring, reporting and verifying emissions related to natural gas, “based on best-available science and economic technologies,” with data transparently published when possible.
Supporters called it a significant step forward for efforts to promote so-called diversified natural gas, under the premise that fuel buyers might eventually pay a premium for supplies identified by third parties as releasing fewer emissions during its production and transportation. It comes as the EU moves forward with regulations limiting the methane intensity of natural gas imports — and as the US dials back some federal requirements meant to stifle the emissions.
The move marks another step toward “a world where globally traded fossil fuels must demonstrate their environmental attributes to access markets,” said Jonathan Banks, global director for methane pollution prevention at the Clean Air Task Force. “This declaration sends a clear message that to remain competitive in a rapidly decarbonizing world, both importing nations and exporting nations must work together to drive down methane emissions and credibly track emissions across the supply chain.”
Methane has at least 80 times the potency of carbon dioxide in the first two decades after it enters the atmosphere, and it’s responsible for roughly one-third of current warming. Reducing it is seen as the fastest and most effective way to slow temperature rise.
That’s propelled growing concern from gas buyers about the amount of methane that is emitted in the process of extracting, processing and transporting natural gas — sometimes leaking from pipes and controllers, sometimes vented directly at wells. While natural gas burns more cleanly than coal when used to produce electricity, those methane emissions can undermine, and even obliterate, those advantages.
While some regions and producers are moving aggressively to stifle methane leaks from pipelines and wells, there’s wide variation globally.
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