Slashing emissions of methane is single fastest way to tackle climate change: UNEP

New Delhi:Slashing emissions of methane is the single fastest way to tackle climate change in the short term, said UNEP, as the total global methane emissions from the industry reached at 80-140 million tons per year.

“As UNEP’s recent Emissions Gap Report showed, the world is far off track to keep climate change to 1.5°C,” Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP said in a statement.

“Companies are making progress, but they must move faster and harder. We need more companies to act, and they must be bolder”, she added.

To keep the average temperature increase at 1.5°C, the world needs urgently to reduce methane emissions by about a third, according to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report published in April 2022.

“Looking at the bigger picture, the best way for the oil and gas industry to end methane emissions, and all emissions, is to rethink entirely their roles as energy companies.

“If the industry is serious about a net-zero future – as it must be to provide a shot at health, wealth, and prosperity for all – this must be the long-term goal”, Ms. Andersen underscored.

Meanwhile, International Methane Emissions Observatory is creating the world’s first global public database of empirically verified methane emissions, starting with the fossil fuel sector, at a level of granularity and accuracy never achieved before.

The lack of reliable emissions data has made it hard for governments to carry out targeted action at the scale and speed needed to achieve the objectives of the Global Methane Pledge (GMP) launched during the UN Climate Conference COP26 last year by over 120 countries.

That aims to bring about a reduction of global methane emissions by 30 per cent, by 2030.

“To reduce methane emissions, we need to know more. Who is emitting, where, and how much? What you do not measure, does not get addressed,” said Kadri Simson, European Commissioner for Energy.

The UNEP Observatory’s focus has also now expanded to cover other major categories of emitters, collectively responsible for 75 per cent of methane emissions in 2017.

At the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference COP27, to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt in November 2022, the Observatory will launch the first iteration of its public “data to action” platform, the Methane Alert and Response System (MARS).

The platform will bring together and release emissions data collected and integrated from diverse data streams.