Large LNG buyers and producers to tighten methane monitoring

Get free climate change updates

we will send you one myFT Daily Digest Latest Email Rounding Climate change News every morning.

Japan, the US, the European Union, Australia and South Korea have agreed to create a mechanism to monitor methane emissions that will bring together some of the world’s biggest buyers and producers of liquefied natural gas to combat global warming.

People directly involved in the discussions said the public-private initiative would involve setting up a database of real-time methane pollution data on individual LNG projects, a move supporters hope will help reduce emissions of the potent global warming gas. Will speed up

In a joint statement, the four countries and the EU will reaffirm the importance of “transparency for methane emissions data in the fossil energy sector” and express support for “accelerated methane reductions in the LNG value chain”.

The initiative comes after a near-record increase in methane emissions from the global fossil fuel industry in 2022.

This was despite a so-called global methane pledge signed by more than 100 countries at a UN climate summit in 2021. Large emitters including China, Russia and India did not sign the agreement, which was led by the US and the European Union. US climate envoy John Kerry, who is in China this week for climate talks, has long pressed Beijing to strengthen its commitment to reduce methane emissions.

The team behind the UN COP28 climate summit in the United Arab Emirates this year is also pushing for “near-zero” methane emissions in the oil and gas industry by 2030.

Methane is the main component of natural gas and has contributed to about 30 percent of global warming since the Industrial Revolution, the energy industry makes up about a third of human-induced methane emissions, second only to agriculture. Emissions mainly result from flaring – the burning of excess gas – and leakage.

Cutting methane emissions is considered by scientists to be one of the cheapest and quickest ways to tackle global climate change, as the gas generates more heat than carbon dioxide but is shorter-lived.

The methane database was proposed by Japan, the president of this year’s G7 summit and one of the world’s biggest importers of LNG. Tokyo has been criticized in the past by climate activists for opposing a global deal to phase out fossil fuels and continuing to finance new foreign gas projects.

The new initiative – called the “Coalition for the Reduction of LNG Emissions Towards Net Zero” (CLEAN) – will be announced on Tuesday. an LNG conference said the people involved in the discussion co-organized by the International Energy Agency in Tokyo.

Japan’s Jira and South Korea’s Kogas, the world’s two biggest LNG buyers, will ask major producers to provide basic data on the volume and intensity of emissions as well as reduction targets and measures being taken. Participation will be voluntary and the results will be disclosed by the government-backed Japan Metals and Energy Security Organization, known as JOGMEC.

There is already a reporting framework for methane pollution led by the United Nations Environment Programme’s Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0.

But Japanese officials said the current database does not provide project-based methane emissions and only company-level total emissions. There is also insufficient data specific to LNG production and the methods of measurement and disclosure are very inconsistent, he added.

Tokyo’s effort was supported by the European Commission and the US, where Joe Biden’s administration has proposed fining methane leaks as a key part of the fight to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The oil and gas industry has objected to proposed US rules, which would allow private groups to monitor and report leaks.

Japanese officials are counting on pressure from JERA and KOGAS to encourage LNG suppliers to act. JOGMEC hopes to promote projects with the lowest methane emission intensity on its website, as well as attract companies by selling Japanese technology to detect or reduce methane leaks.

climate capital

Where climate change meets business, markets and politics. Explore the FT’s coverage here.

Are you curious about FT’s environmental sustainability commitments? Learn more about our science-based goals here