How cutting methane emissions became energy sector's big climate opportunity

In this episode of the All Things Sustainable podcast, we take a deep dive into methane. After carbon dioxide, methane is the greenhouse gas that contributes most to global warming. It is also far more potent than carbon dioxide. The fossil fuel sector is responsible for nearly one-third of global methane emissions from human activity, according to the International Energy Agency. 

In the episode, we explore how recent advancements in monitoring and measuring have unlocked energy companies' ability to understand and address methane emissions. We look at why these emissions matter, and how curbing methane leaks in oil and gas operations is both economically and technically feasible, providing an opportunity for companies to make progress on climate goals in the near term. 

We talk with Steven Hamburg, Senior Vice President and Chief Scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), a global nonprofit tackling climate change. Steven is also the project lead of MethaneSAT, a satellite that finds and measures global methane emissions. He says he wants to create "radical transparency" by making this data widely available. He points to a "sea change" in the way the energy industry thinks about methane emissions.  

"There's a realization in the industry that good practice shouldn't include these emissions," Steven says. 

We also sit down with Dominic Watson, Senior Manager on the Energy Transition team at EDF+Business, a division of EDF that works with a variety of stakeholders on methane management and disclosures, including oil and gas companies. 

Dominic says that cutting methane emissions from oil and gas operations is largely cost effective and can be achieved over the next few years. He notes that companies are under pressure to curb emissions and have started to view addressing methane as "core to their long-term competitiveness in the energy transition."  

And we speak to Georges Tijbosch, CEO of MiQ, an independent nonprofit that aims to facilitate a rapid reduction in methane emissions from the oil and gas sector. 

Georges says many of the technologies needed to address methane emissions already exist. "Yes, they need to grow. Yes, they need to scale. Yes, they need to get better — but it's all there," he tells us. "That's why I found methane so exciting. This is a problem ... we can solve this decade." 

Listen to our podcast interview with oil major ExxonMobil about its approach to methane emissions and the energy transition here. 

Listen to our podcast interview with natural gas company EQT about how it is tackling methane emissions here. 

Learn about the S&P Global Sustianable1's Energy Transition data. 

This piece was published by S&P Global Sustainable1 and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global.    

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