2023-11-26 07:14:12
Update
November 26, 2023
08:14
A very powerful greenhouse gas, methane is at the heart of attention in the run-up to COP28. Its emissions are detected in an increasingly detailed manner, and States are starting to tackle them to obtain easy progress in the fight once morest global warming.
Methane had everything to make itself forgotten: not only does it only hold second role in global warmingbut its emissions are much more difficult to measure than those of carbon dioxide (CO2). Not seen not caught? Not for much longer, because there are at least three good reasons to rediscover this gas, responsible for regarding a third of global warming ongoing since the beginning of the industrial era. A: its insulating power is much greater than that of CO2, tackling it is very effective once morest global warming. Two: large quantities can be removed inexpensively. Three: scientists are making giant strides in its detection, bringing new pressure on producers and transporters of fossil fuels, whose activities cause methane releases.
At the same time, States’ commitments to combating methane emissions have been gaining momentum since COP26 in 2021. It was in Glasgow that the European Union and the United States launched the Global Methane Pledge, committing its signatories (there are around 150 today) to reduce their emissions by 30% during this decade, from all sources combined. And six major producing countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Norway, have launched an initiative, which aims to reduce emissions generated by extraction itself to zero.
How are methane emissions changing?
In the fight once morest global warming, methane occupies a special place. Her lifespan in the atmosphere is relatively short – approximately 12 years old. If we consider a period of twenty years, its insulating power is 86 times higher than CO2 (but as the latter remains in suspension for regarding a century, this ratio reduces over time). Removing these emissions now can therefore have a rapid effect once morest global warming. But the opposite is happening: since 1990, the concentration of methane in the atmosphere has more than doubled. Due to two sectors that increasingly emit more globally: agriculture and energy extraction.
Why do satellites play a key role?
Calculate CO emissions2 linked to the combustion of fossil fuels is not rocket science, as long as we know the quantities of oil, gas or coal consumed. But measuring the release of methane released to look for oil or linked to leaks in gas pipes is another matter, and the data provided by the industry is unreliable on a global scale: invisible, methane is for a long time passed under the radar. But the situation is changing, thanks to satellites.
Until recently, monitoring methane emission sources from space was a challenge. Cathy Clerbaux, an atmospheric physicist at the Free University of Brussels (ULB) who works with the public Copernicus satellites, remembers being able to identify the gigantic Nord Stream leak there: “It was a very small point among a ambient methane cloud.” But recently, commercial satellites have made it possible to go further: “A company like GHGSat is able, under favorable conditions, to zoom in and distinguish sources,” continues the physicist. The company thus made it possible to visualize methane leaking from German-Russian pipelines (84 tonnes/hour), and recently announced that it might see and measure releases of small volumes from oil platforms (0.2 t/h). Companies and states that have until now been reluctant to publish precise data on these methane leaks can no longer hide.
Why is the energy sector attracting attention?
As impressive as leaks like Nord Stream are, they are largely overshadowed by the normal operations of the oil and gas sector, which emit every day the equivalent of the leak caused by this historic sabotageassesses the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Emissions linked to fossil fuel extraction and transport activities are increasingly being measured. To the point, for example, of realizing that methane leaks along distribution chains have substantially reduced the argument for natural gas as a transition energy for coal-dependent economies, observed a recent rapport supported by the United Nations Environment Program.
However, reducing these methane emissions is a relatively easy and valuable gain, for a sector enriched by the energy price crisis. And essential: it is estimated that one of the conditions for being able to limit warming to 1.5°C would be to reduce global methane emissions from the energy sector of 60% during this decade.
The European Union estimates that to achieve its general objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 (compared to 1990), it expected to reduce methane emissions from its energy sector by 58% this decade. To achieve this, it is finalizing a new regulation which will require it to actively combat leaks.
According to the political agreement reached on November 15 between European legislators, oil and gas producers in Europe will no longer be able to systematically vent or flare methane. In coal mines, venting conditions, to avoid firedamp explosions, will be increasingly strict. Future legislation must also pressure on gas or oil producers abroad: from 2027, we will only be able to conclude oil, gas or coal import contracts with exporters subject to the same surveillance obligations as those of European producers; and, from 2030, European importers will no longer be able to import fossil fuels that exceed maximum methane intensity values (yet to be determined).
In Belgium, how are leaks tackled?
Belgium, and its Zeebrugge regasification terminal, is a natural gas distribution hub for Europe, so it is directly concerned. “In 2017, we were still at 142,000 tonnes of methane losses, in 2022, we had fallen back to 70,000 tonnes (measured in CO equivalent2). While at the same time, transported volumes increased by 20%,” indicates Tim De Vil, spokesperson for the gas infrastructure manager, Fluxys.
“From an economic point of view, it is rather neutral: what we gain in wasted gas, we recover in natural gas.”
Methane losses occur in particular when it is necessary to operate the network or change pipes: “Before starting to weld, it must not only be free of pressure, but also free of gas: we have changed our working methods to do this,” continues De Vil. Fluxys uses mobile compressors to extract gas from the section to be opened, and reinject it further into the network. Losses are also avoided thanks to the renewal of pressure regulators, moving from devices that released methane to a pneumatic version, without emissions: Fluxys replaces hundreds of machines. Efforts at a good price: “From an economic point of view, it is rather neutral: what we gain in wasted gas, we recover in natural gas”, further indicates the spokesperson.
What prospects for agriculture?
In agriculture, significantly reducing methane emissions raises sensitive questions linked to the evolution of our diets. Here, two thirds of the problem comes from the return of animals, mainly cattle: reducing meat consumption is therefore an obvious way to act on these emissions. But it’s not the only one: “In Belgium, half of what we produce with our livestock, meat and dairy products, is intended for export”, says Jérôme Meessen, at the Climact design office. Should we continue to export milk powder with low added value, or can we reduce the number of animals and raise them in more extensive conditions?therefore sell better quality products?” We can also marginally reduce methane emissions by changing the diet of farm animals (more fiber), or even by genetic selection.
Emissions resulting from the spreading of manure can also be reduced, but this requires structural adaptations in the agricultural sector. “We might systematically harvest the slurry to recover it in energy form by recovering the methane“, continues Jérôme Meessen. But the key question to resolve here is that of the infrastructure to collect the slurry (and redistribute the digestate for spreading).
We see, methane has taken its place on the map of the fight once morest global warming, and it will undoubtedly be the subject of new announcements during COP28 which opens on November 30 in Dubai. But, for the moment, emissions are not decreasing, and the initiatives on the table remain insufficient in view of the challenges.
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