BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 12. A summit on methane and non-CO2 greenhouse gases is being held within COP29, Trend reports.
As Senior Advisor to the US President for International Climate Policy John Podesta said, today the US approved an emissions levy on the oil and gas industry.
“The U.S. remains committed to its goal of achieving zero emissions of all greenhouse gases no later than 2050, and we hope other countries will follow our lead by setting their own targets for all greenhouse gases. Over the past four years, the US has made significant progress in reducing methane and non-gas greenhouse gas emissions at home.
We announced new regulations last year to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas sector, our largest source of methane, by 80 percent. And today, the US approved an oil and gas emissions fee under the Biden Inflation Reduction Act that will increase the fee for large methane emitters to $1,500 per metric ton by 2026,” Podesta said.
In turn, COP29 President, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan Mukhtar Babayev stated that the COP29 presidency is aimed at advancing the work to reduce methane emissions.
The data shows that we need to reduce emissions by 42 percent by 2030 to keep the 1.5-degree target achievable. Measures to reduce non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions are important to meet this deadline. They account for nearly a third of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and contribute significantly to global warming, and cost-effective methods exist to combat them. Last year, parties agreed within the EU consensus to accelerate significant reductions in non-CO2 emissions worldwide by 2030 and to stay the course,” he said.
According to Babayev, this year, while raising ambitions and
ensuring action on climate change, the COP29 presidency aims to
advance work to reduce methane emissions.
“First of all, this means building on the work of previous
Conferences of the Parties (COPs). We already have a strong basis
for action under the Global Methane Commitment. More than 158
countries have committed to reducing global emissions by 30 percent
by 2030. We encourage all other countries to join this initiative
and raise their methane emissions targets. But signing the pledge
is just the beginning. We must back up this ambition with real
action,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, announced that in March next year, the IEA will re-release country-by-country and sector-by-sector data to compare the stated targets with actual emissions recorded by our global methane tracker.
“The IEA maintains a global methane emissions tracker. We track data by country, by company, by their stated targets, and by reality. From this perspective, focusing on methane seems less challenging than reducing carbon dioxide emissions. There are two reasons for this. First, from a technological point of view. Reducing, or better yet, eliminating methane emissions altogether, is largely a matter of ensuring that pipelines are well sealed. Unlike more complex technologies such as carbon capture, which are also important but require serious technological solutions, the methane challenge is more accessible. It can be solved using existing technologies with proper planning,” he said.
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