On Thursday, 7 October, the International Energy Agency (IEA) published a new report aiming to provide countries and companies guidance so as to reduce methane emissions from fossil fuel operations by 75% by 2030.
This report quantifies the potential impact of a range of measures, including policy and regulatory actions, voluntary industry initiatives, and improvements in transparency of emissions data.
While fossil fuel operations generated nearly 120 million tonnes of methane emissions in 2020, the potential for reducing these emissions “is enormous” in the agency’s opinion.
In the IEA’s scenario, only about one-third of the 75% reduction in methane emissions between 2020 and 2030 is the result of reduced consumption of fossil fuels, mainly coal. Most of the decrease comes from the rapid deployment of measures and technologies that aim to eliminate avoidable methane emissions by 2030.
According to the agency, it is thus possible to avoid more than 70% of current emissions from fossil fuel operations with existing technologies and to avoid about 45% at no net cost.
See the report: https://bit.ly/3mwkjFt (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)