COP27: the EU upstaged on methane action, but legislation is what counts

Author: Flavia Sollazzo , Senior Director EU Energy Transition, Environmental Defense Fund Europe 

The EU delegation arrived at #COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt with its position as a leader on methane action in serious jeopardy. While this COP did not promise the frontpage stories of COP26, the United States’ Special Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, set the tone for discussions when he said that while last year was the ‘methane moment’, this year was the time for ‘methane momentum.’

And he was right, other countries seem to have awoken to the fact that methane, the pollutant driving nearly a third of current warming, represents the fastest available method of putting the brakes on climate change.

The US—the number one in both global oil and gas production and methane pollution—passed its Inflation Reduction Act Methane Emissions Charge in the summer, effectively a fee on methane emissions, and used COP27 to announce substantial strengthening of its long-awaited US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules to cut emissions from tens of thousands of wells, pipelines and other facilities.

Beyond the US, new regulatory announcements from Canada, Nigeria and Mexico, all large oil and gas producing states, promise serious methane momentum going into 2023. Even China, which did not sign up to the Global Methane Pledge to cut emissions by 30% this decade, affirmed that it has drafted a national methane emissions reduction plan.

The EU, however, did have a hand in the new Methane Alert and Response System (MARS) unveiled by the UN Environment Programme 's International Methane Emissions Observatory - IMEO . The initiative, a satellite-based platform to detect emissions and encourage governments and businesses to respond, was partly funded by the European Commission and is part of the broader framework of the Global Methane Pledge Energy Pathway – guidance laid out by the EU and US for signatories of the Global Methane Pledge.

During the Ministerial held on 17 November, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans invited more countries to join the Global Methane Pledge and called on the biggest emitters to disclose their methane plans and ensure their emissions are fully accounted for in their nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

Jointly with the US, EU, Japan, Canada, Norway, Singapore, and the UK, the EU also presented a Joint Declaration from Energy Importers and Exporters, designed to make it easier for buyers and sellers of internationally-traded natural gas to collaborate on minimising methane across supply chains.

All these initiatives aim at building international support to cut methane emissions are welcome, and they must urgently be translated into concrete climate action in the shape of strong obligations for measurement, reporting, verification (MRV), leak detection and repair (LDAR) and venting & flaring if we want to really achieve tangible progress.

Divided priorities and a fork in the road

The European Parliament and Council have reached the final round of negotiations on the Methane Regulation. While addressing Europe’s external methane footprint should be a priority, policymakers cannot afford to water down the Commission’s strong proposals on the measurement and reporting requirements in the oil and gas sector. A failure to do so could result in a piece of legislation that fails to meet the internationally recognised, multi-stakeholder standards in the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0.

Europe, which relies on imports for over 90% of its oil and gas needs, of course has the unique distraction of how to protect its energy security in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and bring down rampant gas prices before winter sets in. Negotiations on new EU emergency measures, such as a cap on gas prices, have proven controversial, dividing member states and highlighting the very large fork in the road that lies ahead of policymakers.

Energy and climate security go hand-in-hand

EU policymakers are coming around to the idea that energy security and climate security are two sides of the same coin. Oil and gas companies worldwide waste at least 210 BCM of natural gas a year through leaks, flaring and other emissions. That’s nearly 25% more gas than Europe was importing from Russia before the Ukraine war.

At a time when Europe is worried about keeping homes warm and lights on, the quickest and cheapest option for filling the gap created by the loss of Russian gas is to simply plug leaks and stop wasting gas. The good news is that much of this can be done without having to build expensive infrastructure that would incentivise continued oil and gas dependence.

Contrasting action on methane to the tough negotiations around more contentious topics, like loss and damage reparations for countries in the Global South and the phasing out of fossil fuels, Mr Timmermans said:

“We have a serious problem that we can actually fix. Methane is something we can actually do something about."

This realisation must be reflected in the Methane Regulation, a regulation that has the power to put Europe once again at the forefront of global methane action. While the US and others may have caught the headlines regarding methane action at COP, it is, at the end of the day, the legislation that counts.

Read more about how to reduce methane emissions in the EU from the Environmental Defense Fund Europe here.