LONDON: According to a report released on Tuesday by the International Energy Agency (IEA), despite promises to find and fix leaky infrastructure, the fossil fuel industry is failing to reduce methane emissions.
About 135 million tonnes of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is responsible for about a third of the increase in global temperatures since the industrial revolution, were released into the atmosphere by the world’s energy sector in 2022.
Despite high energy prices and soaring demand for natural gas, which provided additional incentives to capture methane, last year’s emissions increased above 2020 and 2021 levels and were only marginally less than the record amount released in 2019, according to the report.
Since methane makes up the majority of natural gas, captured emissions can be turned into fuel. Despite some progress, “emissions are still far too high and not falling fast enough – especially as methane cuts are among the cheapest options to limit near-term global warming,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol in a statement. There is simply no defence.
In second place to agriculture, the energy sector is responsible for about 40% of all methane emissions from human activity.
With the help of currently available technologies and a small investment of less than 3% of the $4 trillion in windfall profits earned by oil and gas companies worldwide last year, the IEA estimates that methane emissions from the oil and gas sector alone could be reduced by three-quarters.
The financial incentives to make those cuts were very strong last year, according to Tim Gould, chief energy economist at the IEA. In many markets around the world, natural petrol prices reached records. To market methane, there was a very strong economic incentive.
However, he added that “2022 was a disappointing year” in spite of this.
