by About 50 oil and gas companies around the world have pledged to phase out leaky methane systems by 2030, a move that could quickly reduce emissions of the powerful gas and prevent some of the effects of climate change – if the companies meet their word.
The pledge, announced by Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai (COP28) on Saturday, calls on oil and gas companies to significantly reduce methane emissions to “close to zero” by 2030. Al Jaber, the conference’s President, is the special climate envoy of the United Arab Emirates and the CEO of ADNOC, a state-owned oil and gas company.
The commitment includes ExxonMobil and Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, among the world’s largest oil and gas producers.
Several environmental nonprofits and intergovernmental organizations — including the Environmental Defense Fund and the International Energy Agency — have signed on to track the effort and use satellite technology to provide additional measures of accountability.
Other environmental groups have rejected the new agreement, known as the Oil and Gas Decarbonisation Charter, as part of a greenwashing effort. Over 300 organizations signed an open letter criticizing the attempt.
“Methane emissions and gas flaring are symptoms of a legacy of more than a century of wasteful practices, routine in the oil and gas industry as it pursues massive profits without regard for the consequences,” the groups wrote. “The only safe and effective way to ‘clean up’ fossil fuel pollution is to phase out fossil fuels.”
Methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Controlling methane, which has been increasing in atmospheric concentration for decades, is seen as one of the easiest and cheapest ways to make an immediate impact on global greenhouse gas emissions. And many fossil fuel companies have a natural incentive to reduce emissions, which often costs them money as supply is lost.
“It’s not a complicated technology. It’s mostly plumbing, simple — you know — tightening the screws, turning off the exhaust, stopping the flames, stopping the ventilation, which is just wasting gas, burning it in the atmosphere and damage,” said John Kerry, the United States special officer. Presidential envoy for the climate, in a briefing about the accountability measures behind the agreement, adding that methane was responsible for about 30% of the warming of the planet. “It is absolutely essential that we deal with methane.”
A 2019 United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report estimated that methane’s potential contribution to global warming is more than 80 times that of an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide when impacts are measured over 20 years. Methane, which is the main component of natural gas, accounted for about 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions from the world’s energy supply, according to the latest IPCC report. Methane is also produced by landfills, agriculture and natural processes such as decomposition.
Also on Saturday, the US Environmental Protection Agency announced its final rule on methane pollution, which the agency says will reduce emissions from the US oil and gas industry by about 80% over what could be expected without it. The rule will determine how the oil and gas industry detects and fixes leaks, strengthening flaring provisions and improving emissions standards for pumps.
A study published this summer in Environmental Research Letters suggests that leaking methane could be just as bad for global warming as coal, which shows why world leaders are so vocal about the issue.
Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, said that the oil and gas companies’ agreement could be the most helpful environmental action of his career if the companies stick to their promises.
“We have to make sure the oil companies deliver, we have to hold them accountable,” Krupp said in an interview. “COPs have made many promises that have not been kept.”
Krupp said EDF’s analysis indicates that about 2-3% of the natural gas extracted from the ground has leaked into the air due to incomplete combustion during flaring, leaking compressor seals or loose valves. The agreement calls for limiting that leakage to near zero, defined as .2%, Krupp said.
“Every piece of equipment, every component, can leak methane along the supply chain,” said Arvind Ravikumar, associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin and co-director of its Energy Emissions Modeling and Data Laboratory. “The only way to find out is to go look for it.”
Ravikumar, who was not involved in either announcement on Saturday, said that about 10% of leaks in the oil and gas supply chain create more than 50% of all methane emissions.
“If you want to address methane emissions, find these super emitters and fix them,” Ravikumar said. “There is the economic benefit of stopping leaks.”
Ravikumar said many publicly traded oil and gas companies are under public pressure to reduce leaks, but international agreement is needed to encourage private or national companies to take similar action.
EDF plans to launch a satellite next year to detect methane leaks. Bloomberg Philanthropies, which coordinates former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s charitable giving, has pledged $40 million to create tools to track methane leaks and expand data tracking and coordination among organizations focused on accountability.
Krupp said the companies will have to report their emissions data for third-party verification and that the organizations monitoring this effort, including EDF, should be able to ensure they are continuing .
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
