While the European Commission is expected to present a legislative initiative to reduce methane (CH4) emissions before the end of the year, negotiators from different political groups in the European Parliament have reportedly agreed to call on the Commission to set binding targets, covering all sectors, for measuring and reducing methane emissions.
This is the message of one of the compromise amendments (supported by the EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA, and The Left) to the draft report by MEP María Spyráki (EPP, Greece) on methane (see EUROPE 12740/24). Negotiated between the different groups in Parliament, these amendments will be put to the vote in Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) on Monday 27 September, with a view to a vote on the amended report on 28 September.
While welcoming voluntary initiatives by industry to reduce methane emissions, the EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA, and The Left groups believe that “regulatory measures are now needed to step up the reductions of methane emissions necessary to reach the Paris Agreement’s climate objectives”.
In its methane strategy, presented on 14 October 2020, the Commission emphasised support for voluntary initiatives to improve data on these emissions, before it could take any legislative initiatives with binding targets (see EUROPE 12581/9).
Tackling imports
Another compromise amendment supported by these political groups and the conservatives (ECR) would ask the Commission to make all imports of fossil fuels into the Union conditional on compliance with future EU rules on measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) of methane emissions, leak detection and repair (LDAR) and venting and flaring.
According to the groups, the Commission should develop an “independent methodology” for assessing the compliance of imports with EU requirements.
Today, more than 80% of the fossil gas, 90% of the oil, and 40% of the coal consumed in Europe is imported, which means that most of the methane emissions from European fossil fuel consumption occur outside the EU.
Other measures
In addition, the six groups support the establishment of an independently monitored, globally applicable certification system that would provide a credible assessment of the methane emissions performance of all fossil gas production worldwide.
They also call for the creation of an independent international methane emissions observatory to collect, verify and publish data on global anthropogenic methane emissions.
Finally, one of the compromise amendments calls on the Commission to take specific measures to identify and address methane leakage from super-emitters in all sectors.
See the compromise amendments: https://bit.ly/3ADP29G (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)