BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 27. The first-ever EU rules to curb methane emissions from the energy sector in Europe and globally have become law today, Trend reports via the European Commission.
This milestone marks another step in implementing the European Green Deal and REPowerEU, underscoring Europe’s commitment to tackling harmful emissions both domestically and internationally.
The new regulation mandates that the fossil gas, oil, and coal industries in Europe measure, monitor, report, and verify their methane emissions according to the highest standards. It requires EU operators to eliminate avoidable and routine flaring, limiting flaring and venting to emergencies, technical malfunctions, or safety-related situations.
Given that Europe imports a significant portion of its fossil energy, the regulation also aims to reduce methane emissions from imported fossil fuels. Over time, it will introduce more stringent requirements to ensure exporters gradually adopt the same monitoring, reporting, and verification standards as EU operators.
The new rules mandate the Commission to establish a global methane emitter monitoring tool, utilizing satellite data to provide information on the magnitude, occurrence, and location of high methane-emitting sources within and outside the EU.
Additionally, the Commission will create a rapid alert mechanism for "super-emitting" events—incidents where facilities, equipment, or infrastructure emit exceptionally high levels of methane. This mechanism will serve as an early warning system, detecting super-emitting events and alerting the relevant EU or non-EU authorities to take prompt action to mitigate or prevent them.
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