by A year ago, more than a hundred countries spoke of significantly reducing their methane emissions. But the shares of emissions of this strong greenhouse gas remain for the time being. Will things change at the climate summit in Egypt?
Het was een van de belangrijkste resultaten van de klimaattop in Glasgow: de Global Methane Pledge. Inmiddels hebben ruim 120 landen zich aangesloten bij deze internationale afspraak om de uitstoot van methaan met minstens 30 procent te laten dalen in 2030.
Dat is belangrijk, want methaan is een nog veel sterker broeikasgas dan CO2. Vooral op de korte termijn zorgt methaan voor veel opwarming: in de eerste twintig jaar is het effect wel tachtig keer zo krachtig als CO2. Door de uitstoot van methaan snel terug te dringen, kan de klimaatverandering ook op de korte termijn worden beperkt.
Vorig jaar is de hoeveelheid methaan in de lucht juist met een recordtempo gestegen. Vooral de winning van fossiele brandstoffen, de veehouderij en afvalstortplaatsen stoten veel methaan uit. Sinds Glasgow hebben verschillende landen al maatregelen genomen om daar iets aan te doen. Dat zegt methaanexpert Jonathan Banks bij de Amerikaanse milieuorganisatie Clean Air Task Force.
Hij somt een hele lijst op van plannen die landen hebben gemaakt: een methaantaks voor Amerikaanse olie- en gasbedrijven, verplichte uitstootreducties in Colombia en een actieplan in Nigeria. Allemaal zouden ze in de komende jaren flinke winst voor het klimaat moeten opleveren. “Het maken van beleid duurt helaas vaak langer dan we zouden willen”, zegt Banks. “Maar we hebben al aardig wat goede stappen vooruit gezien.”
Volg de klimaattop
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Methane agreement is not binding
However, the methane deal is not a panacea. It is not binding and a number of major emitters, including China and India, have not joined it. It is important that more countries join the deal, says Bank. But the countries also have to work together to reach agreements.
By composition, one hundred and forty countries are planning to present new plans to reduce their methane emissions at the climate summit in Sharm-el-Sheikh. But the international deal does not require water to be included in such a plan. Nor has it been agreed how much each country must reduce its emissions. Everyone can have that of the 30 percent emissions.
So there is still a lot of work to be done to make the deal a success. Banks: “We have seen in the first year is acceptable. But in the coming year we should see a lot more action from individual countries.”
Oil and gas sector first
In the short term, many countries focus mainly on the oil and gas sector. As a major importer, the European Union will issue a statement together with exporting countries about methane emissions from the extraction and transport of fossil fuels, a source at the European Commission said.
“Reducing methane emissions is made difficult by the lack of international standards,” said the source. That money can also occur during the capture of methane; it is in fact natural gas, which can now be sold for a lot of money. The statement signed this week should be a first step towards a personal emissions standard.
Satellites map emissions
Sharm el-Sheikh is also working hard on ways to map how much methane countries actually emit. Now they often make estimates that are much lower than the emissions measured by satellites of other instruments.
Bram Maasakkers works on such satellite measurements for the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON). “We can see more from space and that in the coming years,” he says.
Last week, Maasakkers and his colleagues presented a world map showing a hundred large garbage dumps that emit a lot of methane. One garbage dump in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires has the climate impact of one and a half million cars. So there is still a lot to gain.
Difficult to act quickly
Some sources of methane emissions are fairly easy to tackle, says Maasakkers. For example, it concerns a state where gas is flared from oil fields, but the flare is not lit. “There, targeting emissions is as easy as turning the flaring point back on.”
Yet it is often difficult to act quickly as a satellite “If you are somewhere in the in the middle of no man’s land sees a leak, it is quite difficult for a Dutch scientist to get in touch with who is responsible,” says Maasakkers.
A new international observatory (IMEO) will collect methane measurements. In Egypt, the center is presenting a first version of a data platform that should provide insight into sources of emissions so that they can be tackled quickly. Maasakkers: “More is being done with what we see from space.”
