Methane emissions were flat in 2023 but still too high to curb climate change, IEA says
Energize Weekly, March 20, 2024
Methane emissions from the production and use of fossil fuels reached 20 million tons in 2023, and while levels have been generally flat for the past five years, they remain too high to meet climate goals, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Since reaching a peak in 2019, emission have been stable even as oil and gas production has expanded, indicating that the “methane intensity” of global production has declined, IEA’s 2024 Methane Tracker report said.
The methane emissions intensity, however, varies widely by country with the top performers, such as Norway and the Netherlands, 100 times more efficient than the worst, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
“Large methane emissions events detected by satellites also rose by more than 50 percent in 2023 compared with 2022, with more than 5 Mt [million tons] of methane emissions detected from major fossil fuel leaks around the world – including a major well blowout in Kazakhstan that went on for more than 200 days,” the IEA said.
Two-thirds of the 120 million tons of fossil fuel-related emissions came from the countries among the top 10 emitters, led by the U.S. with 13.3 million tons of emissions, followed by Russia with 11.2 million tons, and Iran with 6 million tons.
China was the largest emitter of methane from coal production activities, with a total of 3 million tons. Traditional biomass activities added another 10 million tons.
“The energy sector accounts for more than one third of total methane emissions attributable to human activity, and cutting emissions from fossil fuel operations has the most potential for major reductions in the near term,” the IEA said.
The agency estimated that about 80 million tons of annual methane emissions from fossil fuels can be avoided through the deployment of known and existing technologies.
About $170 billion would be needed – $100 billion for oil and gas and $70 million for coal – to reduce global emissions by at least 75 percent.
Methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, but it is also shorter lived, potentially creating a cushion for limiting the average global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius from preindustrial levels.
At the last international climate summit, the Conference of Parties or COP28 in Dubai in 2023, more than 50 oil and gas companies launched the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter to voluntarily speed up industry cuts in methane emissions.
New countries joined the Global Methane Pledge, bringing signatories to 155, to reduce methane emission by 30 percent by 2030.
The IEA report noted that new policies and regulations to cut methane emissions have been announced by the United States, Canada, China and the European Union.
“Taken together, we estimate that if all methane policies and pledges made by countries and companies to date are implemented and achieved in full and on time, methane emissions from fossil fuels would decline by around 50 percent by 2030,” the IEA said.
“However,” the agency said, “in most cases, these pledges are not yet backed up by detailed plans, policies and regulations. The detailed methane policies and regulations that currently exist would cut emissions from fossil fuel operations by around 20 percent from 2023 levels by 2030.”
