In order to combat methane leakage effectively, the European Union must first of all work on collecting more data in relation to these emissions, said Monika Zsigri, a representative from the European Commission's Energy Department ('DG ENER'), on Tuesday 25 February, at an online seminar organised by the Florence School of Regulation((FSR).
While reasserting that DG ENER is working on a strategy to address energy-related methane emissions, Ms Zsigri said that the first step would be to improve monitoring, reporting, and verification of methane emissions.
While giving assurances that the current lack of data was not a reason not to act, Ms Zsigri did remain very evasive about the specific measures envisaged by the European Commission to combat methane emissions.
The Commission's approach remains vague. Although the document by the Commission setting out the Green Deal makes two brief references to methane, the work programme published by the Commission for the year 2020 does not contain any reference to the gas.
As for the NGO, 'Environmental Defense Fund’ (EDF), the lack of references to methane is a cause for concern. “I hope this means that the methane strategy has been included as an integral part of the 'Strategy for smart sector integration’ [a non-legislative initiative planned for the second quarter of 2020]”, said EDF Director, Poppy Kalesi, to EUROPE.
She went on to point out that Article 16 of the EU Regulation on the Governance of the Energy Union (2018/1999) provides that the Commission should “look into strategic options for rapidly tackling methane emissions and present a strategic plan for the Union in respect of methane”.
When asked by EUROPE, the Commission told us that it plans to present this strategic plan this year, but that the exact timing and format of the plan has not yet been decided upon.
The extent of anthropogenic emissions is a matter of some debate. The situation is worrying. According to the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), methane emissions have a global warming potential (GWP) over 100 years in the order of 30 times that of CO2.
At present, methane would therefore be responsible for about a third of the greenhouse effect and would account for about 10% of total EU greenhouse gas emissions.
While it is widely recognised that the extraction and use of fossil fuels is among the largest anthropogenic sources of CH4 emissions, the precise extent of methane leakage throughout the extraction process for these fuels continues to be a matter of debate.
In a report released on 19 February, researchers at the University of Rochester in the United States say the amount of methane emitted into the atmosphere as a result of fossil fuel use has been grossly underestimated.
Their study indicates that levels of naturally released fossil methane—which are therefore not related to human exploitation of fossil fuels—are about ten times lower than previous estimates had concluded. Consequently, researchers believe that methane emissions as a result of the fossil fuel industry have been underestimated by about 25-40%. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)