UN: Companies and countries are lagging behind in tackling methane emissions

Since the U.N. began monitoring oil and gas infrastructure for leaks of methane last year, 1,200 alerts have been sent to government and company officials.

Only 12 out of the 2,000 alerts for large plumes, or 1%, were followed up with "substantive" action to stop the leaks. This was according to the report released by the U.N. International Methane Emissions Observatory.

Roland Kupers, the lead architect of the programme, said in a presentation during the COP29 Climate Summit in Azerbaijan that "we had expected [the rate of response] to be significantly higher".

Many of those who received notification that large methane clouds were detected within their borders by satellites had already signed a global commitment launched three years earlier to reduce methane emission levels by 30% by 2030 compared to 2020.

Inger Andersen is the executive director of U.N. Environment Programme, which oversees the Methane Alert and Response System monitoring program. Environment Programme is the umbrella organization for the Methane Alarm and Response System Monitoring Program.

They should recognize the opportunity this system offers and begin to respond by plugging leaks which are spewing climate-warming Methane.

Methane has a powerful greenhouse gas. Its warming power is 80 times greater than carbon dioxide in a period of 20 years. Methane emissions are responsible for a global temperature increase of 0.5 degrees Celsius, or about one-third, since the middle of the 19th century.

Experts say that capping leaks in oil and gas equipment and wells is the fastest way to tackle the problem. They also say that it makes good financial sense because lost methane is lost product.

The oil and gas sector's methane emissions have been at record levels since 2019 despite the fact that 150 countries signed the Global Methane Pledge.

Around 140 companies have joined the U.N. Oil and Gas Methane Partnership v2.0, which aims to reduce unintentional emissions of methane.

Turkmenistan, according to the U.N. data program, had the highest number of leaks detected, with almost 400 plumes.

Azerbaijan, the host country of COP29 this year, received alerts about 32 plumes.

Cloud cover can obscure methane from satellite detection, which limits the report's findings.

UNEP's report states that the few countries to respond to leak alerts are Algeria, Azerbaijan Nigeria and United States.

Some companies say they will use data from satellite programmes to comply with new national regulations on methane.

The leaking of data can be used by developing countries to seek funding to solve the problem. Last year, philanthropies announced a half-billion dollar commitment to this effort.

SOCAR Azerbaijan, the state-owned oil company of Azerbaijan, has identified 400 leaks via satellite monitoring. SOCAR joined other national oil and natural gas companies last year in a voluntary Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter, committing to eliminate methane by 2020. Reporting by Gloria Dickie and Valerie Volcovici; editing by Katigle Daigle and David Evans

(source: Reuters)