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Energy, Climate change, Environment
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Methane emissions

The EU is a global leader on methane abatement: co-convening the Global Methane Pledge, implementing the EU Methane Regulation domestically and offering funding programmes for international organisations and governments to support action worldwide.

After carbon dioxide, methane is the second greatest contributor to climate change. In fact, methane’s ability to trap heat in the atmosphere is even stronger than that of carbon dioxide. On a 100-year timescale, methane’s global warming potential is 29.88 times that of carbon dioxide and 82.5 times more on a 20-year timescale. This is because  methane only lasts around 10 -12 years in our atmosphere, while carbon dioxide stays there for millennia.

According to the International Energy Agency, methane concentrations have been rising more quickly than any other major greenhouse gas, and than any period since recordkeeping began. When using fossil gas for electricity generation, lifecycle methane emissions must not exceed 3% of delivered volumes, otherwise, in climate terms, it would be better to use coal. Abating methane emissions is therefore necessary for achieving the 2050 climate objectives of the European Green Deal.

Key figures on methane

2nd
most important GHG contributor to climate change
60%
of the global methane emissions result from human activity
1/3
of this comes from the energy sector

According to the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) Scientific Advisory Panel, reducing methane emissions associated with human activity by 50% over the next 30 years would mitigate global temperature change by 0.2°C, a significant step towards keeping the overall global temperature increase below 2°C in line with the Paris Agreement.

Halting methane emissions doesn’t just halt the increase of methane concentrations in our atmosphere – it can turn it back, buying time for the clean transition. 

Moreover, methane emissions’ reductions can be cost-effective, often even cost-negative. The captured, non-emitted gas can be reused and sold as natural gas. The International Energy Agency estimates that more than 196 billion cubic metres of gas that could have been supplied to global markets was lost through flaring, venting, and leaking worldwide in 2023 (Global Methane Tracker 2025) – enough to cover two-thirds of the EU’s annual consumption. Given the market value of the captured gas, 30% of these mitigations would have no net-cost, and the vast majority would have a very low cost.

EU Methane Regulation

In the energy sector, the main challenge in cutting methane emissions is first being able to detect and quantify them. Therefore, the rules focus on measurement, reporting and verification, with strong rules on finding and repairing leaks within the EU.

The regulation builds on existing ambitious industry-led standards. The rules on measuring and reporting methane emissions build-on the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (OGMP 2.0) framework, which already covers 42% of global oil and gas production, to help understand the exact locations and volumes of methane emitted, allowing a shift from estimates to direct measurements of methane emissions, checked by independent verifiers.

Oil and gas

Within the EU companies are required to frequently survey their equipment to detect leaks. If found, they need to be repaired immediately, mostly within 5 or 15 working days and monitored to ensure that repairs are successful.

The regulation also bans venting and routine flaring, allowing venting only in exceptional or unavoidable circumstances for safety reasons. It allows flaring only if re-injection, utilisation on-site or transport of the methane to a market are not technically feasible, with more restrictive rules for how it can be carried out. It also obligates EU countries to map and reduce emissions from closed and abandoned oil and gas wells.

Coal

Within the EU the regulation envisages a phase-out of venting and flaring of methane, ensuring that safety aspects in coal mines are accounted for. It also obligates EU countries to map and establish mitigation plans in the case of abandoned coal mines and inactive oil and fossil gas wells.

Imports

For imports, the regulation phases-in a number of requirements for importers over time

  1. 5 May 2025
    Reporting requirement
    • Importers must provide qualitative information on the origin, route, and what monitoring, reporting, verification, and loss detection and repair measures were applied to crude oil, natural gas, or coal imported into the EU.
  2. 1 January 2027
    Monitoring, reporting, and verification requirement
    • Importers must demonstrate that the crude oil, natural gas, or coal imported into the EU was produced in a jurisdiction with monitoring, reporting, and verification requirements equivalent to those applied domestically in the EU, or at OGMP 2.0 Level 5 (reconciliation) plus verification for oil and gas.
    • This applies to all contracts signed or renewed after 4 August 2024. For pre-existing contracts importers must undertake all reasonable efforts to do so.
  3. 5 August 2028
    Methane intensity reporting requirement
    • Importers must report the methane intensity of imported crude oil, natural gas, or coal at production, in line with the methodology to be set out by the Commission.
    • This applies to all contracts signed or renewed after 4 August 2024. For pre-existing contracts importers must undertake all reasonable efforts to do so.
  4. 5 August 2030
    Methane intensity requirement
    • Importers must demonstrate that the imported crude oil, natural gas, or coal has a methane intensity below a limit set by the Commission.
    • This applies to all contracts signed or renewed after 5 August 2030. For pre-existing contracts importers must undertake all reasonable efforts to do so.

Enforcement, decisions around compliance, and reporting for much of the regulation, including the international dimension, falls upon National Competent Authorities in each EU country. Non-compliance is subject to penalties set out in each EU country.

A set of detailed Questions and Answers for importers and producers in non-EU countries was published to support compliance. Once integrated into the European Economic Area (EEA) agreement, these provisions are not expected to apply to imports from EEA countries.

Global Methane Pledge

This video was produced for COP28 in December 2023 and explains the objectives of the Global Methane Pledge.
©European Union, 2023

The Commission and the U.S. launched the Global Methane Pledge (GMP) in 2021 at COP26 in Glasgow to slash methane emissions by 30% by 2030, with Canada taking over from the U.S. as co-convenor in 2025.

Since its launch, the pledge has generated unprecedented momentum for methane action with 160 country endorsements by November 2024, as well as increasing national action roadmaps and regulations being adopted.

The pledge has served as the focal point for global methane action since COP26. Key milestones include the Methane Finance Sprint at COP28, which mobilised €175 million for EU methane initiatives and over USD 1 billion in total, as well as the launch of the Methane Abatement Partnership Roadmap at COP29.

Partners and initiatives

Next to co-leading the Global Methane Pledge, international cooperation and alignment on mitigation strategies is reflected in all of the EU’s bilateral and multilateral engagements. This includes strengthening importer-exporter cooperation as well as alignment with international organisations, NGOs and financial institutions.

Cooperation with major fossil fuel importers

As a large fossil fuel importer, the EU has a responsibility and opportunity to incentivise methane abatement measures across the supply chains. Cooperation with other major importers can also send a powerful political signal to motivate further action. 

After the Joint Statement on ‘Accelerating methane mitigation from the LNG value chain’ signed by the Commission, Japan, the U.S., Australia and South Korea in 2023, Japan and the Commission have strengthened their cooperation on the implementation of Global Methane Pledge targets. This is reflected in their LNG importers’ initiative alliance for methane mitigation from the LNG value chain announced at the LNG-Producer Consumer Conference in 2024, striving for alignment on data transparency, monitoring and reporting standards as well as mitigation action in exporting countries. 

International Methane Emission Observatory

The Commission supported the establishment of the International Methane Emission Observatory (IMEO) in 2021, together with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Climate and Clean Air Coalition and the International Energy Agency.

UNEP’s IMEO provides data to the individuals who can act to reduce emissions. To do this, IMEO collects and publishes data through rigorous industry reporting via the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (OGMP 2.0), from satellites via the Methane Alert and Response System (MARS), from its series of global methane science studies, and from national emissions inventories. The IMEO launched its ‘An Eye on Methane’ data platform in November 2024. Building on both OGMP 2.0 and MARS, the observatory is working on the development of a Methane Supply Index of the emission intensity of global oil and gas production to be used by market participants to make purchasing choices based on emissions.

At COP29, the Commission co-hosted the first ever IMEO Ministerial, reaffirming donors’ strong political and financial support to data driven solutions to catalyse methane reductions. 

Climate and Clean Air Coalition

The EU is actively involved in the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), established under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The CCAC acts as the Global Methane Pledge Secretariat and works to tackle short-lived climate pollutants, such as methane and black carbon, to combat climate change and improve local air quality.