The EU regulation to reduce methane emissions has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, marking the final stage before the legislation becomes enforceable.
This regulation, officially designated as EU 2024/1787, imposes stringent new limits on emissions from fossil fuel activities within EU Member States. Additionally, rigorous standards will be enforced on imports from numerous oil, coal, and natural gas exporting countries that supply energy to the EU.
The new regulation obliges the fossil gas, oil and coal industry in Europe to measure, monitor, report and verify their methane emissions according to the highest monitoring standards, and to take action to reduce them. It requires EU gas, oil and coal operators to stop avoidable and routine flaring and to reduce flaring and venting to situations such as emergencies, technical malfunctions or when it is necessary for safety reasons.
Methane emissions in numbers
- In 2018, methane contributed 17.3% of total world’s emissions.
- In 2020, methane (CH4) accounted for about 11% of all U.S. GHG from human activities, which include leaks from natural gas systems.
- GHG emissions —including CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide— of total shipping (international, domestic and fishing) have increased from 977 million tonnes in 2012 to 1,076 million tonnes in 2018 (9.6% increase), IMO data show.
With Europe importing a large part of the fossil energy it consumes, the regulation will also help to reduce methane emissions from imported fossil fuels. The regulation will progressively introduce more stringent requirements to ensure that exporters gradually apply the same monitoring, reporting and verification obligations as EU operators.
The new rules require the Commission to put in place a monitoring tool on global methane emitters to provide information, based on satellite data, on the magnitude, occurrence and location of high methane-emitting sources occurring within or outside the EU.
The Commission will also set up a rapid alert mechanism for ‘super-emitting’ events, namely incidents where facilities, equipment or infrastructure emit very high rates of methane. The mechanism will act as an early warning system to detect super emitting events and alert the EU or non-EU country in order for action to be taken to stop or prevent them.
