Reducing Methane Leaks: Actions and Challenges

According to the EPA, methane’s lifetime in the atmosphere is much shorter than carbon dioxide (CO2). But methane (CH4) is more efficient at trapping radiation than CO2. Pound for pound, the comparative impact of CH4 is more than 25 times greater than CO2 over a 100-year period. A recent study found the U.S. oil and gas industry emits 13 million metric tons of methane from its operations each year—nearly 60 percent more than previous estimates and enough to offset much of the climate benefits of burning natural gas instead of coal.

Reducing methane leaks is therefore a priority to tackle climate change. But does the industry have the proper incentives to reduce those harmful losses? What policies or regulations should change or be implemented to improve those incentives? What is the industry currently doing to minimize those leaks? And how is the environmental group Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) working with industry to achieve methane reduction targets?