“No excuse” for top methane emissions
“No excuse” for top methane emissions
MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) — The Worldwide Power Company on Tuesday accused fossil gasoline industries of doing too little to curb methane emissions and undermining world local weather objectives to restrict warming.
Financial uncertainty, excessive power costs and considerations over safety of provide, which might have led to emissions cuts in 2022, have been ineffective as methane emissions remained “stubbornly excessive,” the report mentioned.
“Methane cuts are among the many most cost-effective choices to restrict near-term world warming,” mentioned IEA’s government director Fatih Birol. “There’s simply no excuse.”
The IEA’s annual Methane Gasoline Tracker discovered that 75% of methane emissions from the oil and gasoline sector could be lowered with far cheaper and available applied sciences.
Methane, which makes up pure gasoline, can escape into the air from oil and gasoline infrastructure. Fossil gasoline firms might also flare or burn off extra gasoline that can release methane into the environment.
The report slammed oil and gasoline majors’ refusal to pay up the some $100 billion wanted for applied sciences to spearhead the emissions cuts, which is lower than 3% of the industry’s record bumper profits made final 12 months.
The report mentioned that the power sector accounts for round 40% of the full common methane emissions from human exercise, second to agriculture, and is chargeable for 135 million tons of methane launched into the environment final 12 months.
“The untamed launch of methane in fossil gasoline manufacturing is an issue that generally goes beneath the radar in public debate,” Birol mentioned. “Fossil gasoline producers have to step up and coverage makers have to step in – and each should accomplish that rapidly.”
Limiting emissions from coal mines — one other supply of methane — by decreasing coal consumption was additionally highlighted within the report. A toolkit and regulatory roadmap for coverage makers and trade on coal methane reductions has been developed by the IEA.
Methane is a greenhouse gasoline which is 80 occasions stronger than carbon dioxide within the brief time period and is chargeable for a few fifth of all warming. In 2021, world leaders committed to reducing methane emissions from human actions by 30% by the top of the last decade.
New superior applied sciences and satellites are offering clearer methane emissions photographs rising the world’s data of emission sources.
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