On the 15th October, GIE in collaboration with Florence School of Regulation organised a policy workshop “Towards a net zero methane emissions in the gas sector – challenges and opportunities” with the aim to discuss the EU`s long-term strategy towards GHG emissions, the industry`s voluntary actions and best practices, regulatory experiences and potential approaches to more stringent regulation. 

 

In his welcome speech, GIE Board member, Francisco de la Flor said, “Gas industry committed to further reduce the methane emissions from their natural gas infrastructure, to implement the best available techniques to achieve this goal and to improve transparency on emissions data. It is an undisputable fact that the cooperation between the industry and authorities will be the key in this process”.

 

Stefan Moser from the European Commission agreed that “a more transparent approach for the gas sector, where data quality and measurements have to be improved, is needed” and that “further company-level commitments and global partnerships have to be developed”. Several initiatives along the gas value chain have been launched during the last years in order to raise awareness of the gas industry. One example is the signing of the “Guiding Principles” issued by the Climate & Clean Air Coalition on reducing CH4 emissions across the natural gas value chain, OGCI projects and the regular CH4 emissions industry meetings. 

 

On the other side, the Commission acknowledged that they also need to work on the review of measurement techniques and methodologies along the whole gas supply chain. Analysis of infrastructure management, regulatory and liability regimes and satellite data collection, notably with a view to identify “super emitters” and make policy recommendations to measure and address fugitive methane emissions in gas sector (in the EU and globally) are still part of the work that needs to be done. 

 

The workshop of 40 people concluded that close cooperation is needed between authorities and industry to not only implement Best Practices to reduce methane emissions and reduce uncertainty in the measurement, validation and reporting of methane emissions but to also establish quantitative methane reduction targets, taking into account the previous efforts carried out by the industry.