It is urgent to tackle methane emissions, emitted during the production of fossil fuels in massive quantities, and very underestimated.
This is what the International Energy Agency (IEA) demanded on Wednesday, in order to fight against global warming, while recovering gas.
According to the IEA's Global Methane Tracker 2022, methane emissions linked to the oil, gas and coal sectors have started to rise again, with +5% in 2021 – without however returning to their 2019 peak. are also about 70% higher than the figures transmitted by the States to the UN, adds the Agency, which calls for "more transparency" and "stronger and immediate measures" to fight effectively against climate change.
Methane (CH4) has generated about 30% of global warming since the Industrial Revolution.
Its lifetime in the atmosphere is shorter (about ten years) than that of CO2, but its warming power much higher: "Limiting these emissions would therefore have a rapid effect on global warming", argues the IEA.
The effort would pay off: reducing methane emissions due to human activities by 30% by the end of this decade would be equivalent for the climate of 2050 to bringing the entire transport sector to net zero emissions.
🚨 This morning we released our Global Methane Tracker.
Don't miss this thread from our Chief Energy Economist @tim_gould_ running through the key findings 👇 https://t.co/ZeEeFgYotq
— International Energy Agency (@IEA) February 23, 2022
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“A staggering loss of gas”
Today, the fossil fuel sector is 40% responsible for these methane emissions, through discharges or leaks linked to their extraction or transport.
If in 2021 all the CH4 released had been recovered and then sold, the market would have benefited from 180 billion cubic meters of additional natural gas, calculated the IEA.
This is the equivalent of all the gas needed by the electricity sector in Europe, and more than enough to ease the current energy crisis.
"It's a staggering loss of gas, in a year when the market is so constrained," said Tim Gould, the IEA's chief economist, to the press.
"It's more than 40 billion dollars that evaporate in the air".
Yet "at the current high price of gas, virtually all emissions related to gas and oil operations in the world could be avoided at zero net cost", by focusing on preventing or recovering them, underlines the director of the agency, Fatih Birol.
The report nevertheless notes a small effort: the resumption of methane emissions in 2021 did not completely follow the strong rebound in energies.
It is based in particular on increasingly sophisticated satellite data, country by country.
Last year saw "significant emissions", particularly in Texas and parts of Central Asia, with Turkmenistan alone generating a third of the large episodes spotted by satellite in 2021, points to the balance sheet.
“Everyone can progress”
Relatively few major leaks, on the other hand, have been detected at the major onshore oil and gas fields in the Middle East.
Satellite monitoring is more difficult for equatorial regions, offshore or high latitudes (including Russian fields), due to meteorological and atmospheric conditions.
But the data are improving, and are multiple, aerial, terrestrial.
"Transparency will prevail," underlines Tim Gould.
And to add: “The major emitters will not be able to escape external scrutiny.
This is why we encourage all companies, all countries to look closely at this subject”.
“Countries have shown that it is possible to act” against rejections, notes Christophe McGlade, main author of the report, citing Norway and the Netherlands as the best students.
Without necessarily equaling them, “everyone can progress” with “more rigorous standards”, technologies already proven, regulations for example on flaring, he says.
“We see that companies are taking this more seriously.
But for us, a "zero tolerance" approach would be an excellent step forward.
At the UN COP26 in Glasgow in November, a commitment to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030 was presented.
But of the five main emitters – China, Russia, Iran, India, USA – only the latter has so far signed it, notes the IEA.
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