GLOBAL METHANE TRACKER 2023

1. Context 

2. Key Points

• The report said 75 per cent of methane emissions from the energy sector can be reduced with the help of cheap and readily available technology.
• The implementation of such measures would cost less than three per cent of the net income received by the oil and gas industry in 2022, but fossil fuel companies failed to take any substantial action regarding the issue.
• The energy sector accounts for around 40 per cent of the total average methane emissions from human activity, as oil and natural gas companies are known to release methane into the atmosphere when natural gas is flared or vented.
• The greenhouse gas is also released through leaks from valves and other equipment during the drilling, extraction and transportation process.
• More than 260 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas (mostly composed of methane) is wasted through flaring and methane leaks globally today.
• Although it is impossible to avoid all of this amount, the right policies and implementation can bring 200 bcm of additional gas to markets.
• In the oil and gas sector, emissions can be reduced by over 75 per cent by implementing well-known measures such as leak detection and repair programmes and upgrading leaky equipment.
• It further mentioned that 80 per cent of the available options to curb the release of methane could be implemented by the fossil fuel industry at net zero cost.
• Based on average natural gas prices from 2017 to 2021, estimate that around 40 per cent of methane emissions from oil and gas operations could be avoided at no net cost because the outlays for the abatement measures are less than the market value of the additional gas that is captured.
• Ultimately reducing 75 per cent of the wastage of natural gas could lower global temperature rise by nearly 0.1 degree Celsius by mid-century.
• This would have the same effect on the soaring global temperatures as immediately stopping greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles such as cars, trucks, buses and two and three-wheeler vehicles across the world.
• However, fossil fuel companies have done little to tackle the problem.

3. About Methane

• Methane is a greenhouse gas, which is responsible for 30 per cent of the warming since preindustrial times, Second only to carbon dioxide.
• A report by the United Nations Environment Programme observed that over 20 years, methane is 80 times more potent at warming than carbon dioxide.
• There are various sources of methane including human and natural sources.
• Human sources of methane include landfills oil and natural gas systems, agricultural activities, coal mining, wastewater treatment and certain industrial processes.
• The oil and gas sectors are among the largest contributors to human sources of methane.
• NASA notes that human sources (also referred to as anthropogenic sources) of methane are responsible for 60 per cent of global methane emissions.
• These emissions come primarily from the burning of fossil fuels, decomposition in landfills and the agriculture sector.

• CBM, like shale gas, is extracted from what is known as unconventional gas reservoirs where gas is extracted directly from the rock that is the source of the gas (Shale in the case of shale gas and coal in the case of CBM).
• The methane is held underground within the coal and is extracted by drilling into the coal seam and removing the groundwater.
• The resulting drop in pressure causes methane to be released from the coal.
• In recent years, scientists have repeatedly sounded the alarm regarding the increasing amount of methane in the atmosphere. The US National Oceanic and  Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said that the atmospheric levels of methane jumped 17 parts per billion in 2021, beating the previous record set in 2020.
• While carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for much longer than methane, is roughly 25 times more powerful at trapping heat in the atmosphere and has an important short-term influence on the rate of climate change.

4. Global Methane Pledge

• The pledge was first announced by the US and EU and is essentially an agreement to reduce global methane emissions.
• One of the central aims of this agreement is to cut down methane emissions by up to 30 per cent from 2020 levels by the year 2030.
• Methane accounts for about half of the 1.0 degrees Celsius net rise in the global average temperature since the pre-industrial era.

5. About MARS

• In keeping with the relatively new focus on cutting methane emissions, the UN has decided to set up a satellite-based monitoring system for tracking it and alerting governments and corporations to respond.
• The Methane Alert and Response System, or MARS will integrate data from a large number of existing and future satellites that can detect methane emission events anywhere in the world and send out notifications to the relevant stakeholders to act on it.
• In the last few years, there has been a lot of emphasis on reducing methane emissions. 
• Methane is the second-most common of the six major greenhouse gases but is far more dangerous than carbon dioxide in its potential to cause global warming.
• Accounting for about 17 per cent of the current global greenhouse gas emissions, methane is blamed for having caused at least 25 to 30 per cent of temperature rise since the pre-industrial times.
• However, unlike carbon dioxide, methane is largely a sectoral gas and there are only a few sources of emission.
• It is possible, therefore, to cut down on methane emissions without having a widespread impact on the economy. Because its global warming potential is about 80 times that of carbon dioxide, a reduction in methane emissions also brings big benefits in a short time.
• At the Glasgow climate conference, nearly 100 countries had come together in a voluntary pledge now referred to as the Global Methane Pledge to cut methane emissions by at least 30 per cent by 2030 from the 2020 levels. 
• More countries have joined this initiative since then, bringing the total to nearly 130.
• A 30 per cent reduction in methane emissions by 2030 is expected to result in avoiding 0.2 degrees rise in temperature by the year 2050 and is considered essential in the global efforts to keep the temperature increase below the 1.5 degree Celsius target.

6. The MARS initiative is intended to strengthen these efforts.

• It would feed into the recently formed International Methane Emissions Observatory of the UN Environment Programme.
• To start with, MARS will track the large-point emission sources, mainly in the fossil fuel industry, but with time, would be able to detect emissions from coal, waste, livestock and rice fields as well.
• US announced among other things, a proposal to strengthen domestic standards to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by 87 per cent from 2005 levels.

7. Global Methane Initiative 

• The Global Methane Initiative (GMI) is an international public-private partnership focused on reducing barriers to the recovery and use of methane as a valuable energy source.
• It provides technical support to deploy methane-to-energy projects around the world that enable Partner Countries to launch methane recovery and use projects.
• GMI focuses on three key sectors: Oil and Gas, Biogas and Coal Mines.

• The Harit Dhara developed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, through comprehensive research over a decade is an anti-methanogenic feed supplement prepared from natural phyto-sources.
• It is found very effective in reducing enteric methane emissions by up to 17 to 20 per cent when incorporated in livestock feed.
• The partial inhibition of enteric methanogenesis will have the dual advantage of stabilizing the global warming process and enhancing productivity by re-channelizing the saved biological energy.

For Prelims & Mains