President Biden will address COP27 on Friday and outline new initiatives to combat methane emissions from the oil and gas sector.
The new rule covers wells releasing less than 3 tonnes of methane annually and compels drillers to handle third-party leak reports. It supplements leak detection and monitoring rules introduced at COP26. The US Environmental Protection Agency undercounts methane emissions from oil and gas operations, according to numerous studies.
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Methane is the primary component of so-called “natural gas,” and over the course of 20 years, it traps 80 times more heat in the atmosphere than CO2. The oil and gas sector is the major industrial producer of methane pollution in the United States.
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A disproportionate share of the methane pollution from the oil and gas industry is released by low-producing “marginal wells.” Any road to limiting global temperature increases to 1.5 C over pre-industrial averages must include quickly reducing methane pollution from fossil fuel activities.
