[ad_1]
From: TT
Published:
Photo: Jae C Hong / AP / TT
A new monitoring program will reduce methane leaks from the fossil fuel industry by 60 to 75 percent by 2030. Stock photo.
Through a new collaboration with the UN and the European Commission, the fossil fuel industry will monitor and reduce its leakage of methane, a strong greenhouse gas. But within the research world, skeptical voices are heard.
– Industry has a lot to show, considering how much they have previously minimized these emissions, says Lena Höglund Isaksson, a researcher at IIASA, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, in Vienna and an expert on methane emissions from human activities.
In the extraction of coal, oil and natural gas, methane leaks, a greenhouse gas that is approximately 30 times stronger than carbon dioxide. According to the UN Climate Panel, methane emissions account for about a quarter of global warming.
More than double
Since pre-industrial times, emissions have increased by almost 150 percent. A common misconception is that burping cows and agriculture account for most of the methane gas that can be linked to human activity. At least the same amount is leaking from the operations of the fossil fuel industry.
Now 62 companies in the fossil fuel industry, in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Program, UNEP and the European Commission, have committed to monitoring methane emissions in order to control and reduce them. The collaboration is called OGMP 2.0, an update of the previous OGMP (Oil and Gas Methane Partnership).
“We look forward to steps that can transform commitments into real emission reductions,” UNEP Director-General Inger Andersen said in a press release.
Positive but skeptical
Researcher Lena Höglund Isaksson also welcomes the initiative, but is skeptical about how it will be implemented.
– I and many other researchers have shown that the fossil fuel industry has so far reported about half of the methane emissions compared to measurements in the atmosphere and other ways of estimating emissions.
Methane is an invisible, odorless gas that mixes rapidly with the atmosphere, and therefore its origin is almost impossible to trace. But, among other things, by analyzing the content of different isotopes in methane gas that is added to the atmosphere, it is possible to estimate the amount that is emitted from the fossil fuel industry.
– So far, it just hasn’t worked when they have summarized their own reports. Emissions can’t possibly be as low as the industry claims, says Lena Höglund Isaksson.
No incentive
It adds that leaks can be reduced with fairly simple and inexpensive methods. In addition, there is an economic value in methane gas, as it can be used as a fuel. But so far, profit margins in the industry have been so great that there hasn’t been enough incentive to capture methane gas, he says.
– I think this initiative is because the fossil fuel industry is now under such great pressure. Also, they need to improve their reputation, as fund funders are starting to turn a deaf ear and no longer see it as an industry of the future, says Lena Höglund Isaksson.
Published:
