In 2024, record production of the fossil industry sector (gas, oil, coal) was responsible for rejection in the atmosphere of more than 120 million tonnes of methane, close to the record reached in 2019, according to the new edition of this “Global Methane Tracker”.
The second largest greenhouse gas
Invisible in air and odorless, methane, second largest greenhouse gas after CO2, is the molecule of natural gas which escapes gas pipelines, coal mines, but also cows or waste. About 580 million tonnes of methane are rejected each year, including 60 % attributable to human activity – with agriculture in mind followed by energy – and almost a third in natural wetlands.
The energy sector is responsible for around a third of anthropogenic methane emissions, due to leaks that occur at the time of extraction and production (Torchage, Methane release), and transport (gas pipelines, ships).
In power much more warming than CO2, methane has been responsible for around 30 % of global warming since the industrial revolution, but it has a shorter lifespan. It therefore constitutes a priority lever for a rapid reduction in emissions.
China, the largest transmitter
The measures to combat methane remain “below ambitions,” said Fatih Birol, executive director of the IAI. And this while around 70 % of these emissions could be easily avoided at a lower cost – the captured gas that can be sold, according to the OECD agency.
China is the world’s largest transmitter of methane linked to energy, mainly from its coal sector. Then follow the United States and Russia.
The IEA figures are based on measured data, when observations are possible, as opposed to declared emissions which can be obsolete or estimated from information from the energy sector. The AIE thus stresses that its estimate is around 80 % higher than the total declared by the countries to the United Nations.
-Massive leaks in Russia and the United States
But “Transparency improves” thanks to more than 25 satellites which track the “feathers” of methane from the space from Petrogazières installations, but also recycling centers, intensive breeding, rice fields from space …
One of them, the European Sentinel 5P, which detects only the most important leaks, observed that “methane super-emission events” in petrogazières facilities reached a record level in 2024, despite reduced coverage. Massive leaks identified all over the world, but particularly in the United States, Turkmenistan and Russia.
Abandoned oil and gas wells, and coal mines, are also important sources of methane leaks, according to a new analysis of the AIE for the report. Together, they would constitute the “fourth largest worldwide methane transmitter from fossil fuels”, contributing for some 8 million tonnes in 2024.
Slow down global warming
According to the IAI, the current commitments of companies and countries in terms of reducing methane discharges cover 80 % of global oil and gas production. But today only about 5 % of this production “verifiably respects a standard of methane emissions close to zero”.
However, tackling these Energy Methane emissions would considerably slow global warming, thus avoiding an increase of approximately 0.1 ° C of global temperatures by 2050. “This would have a considerable impact, comparable to the elimination of a single blow of all CO2 emissions in the heavy industry,” said the report.
The EMBER reflection group said Wednesday that the fossil industry must reduce its methane emissions by 75 % by 2030 if the world wants to put itself on the path of carbon neutrality in 2050.
