We haven’t taken the methane threat seriously and time is running out – Inside track

The UK isn’t short of climate targets, but it is short on plans to meet them. That’s especially true for methane, a greenhouse gas around 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over the short term. Despite its potency, it unfathomably barely features in government action plans. Although the UK did sign up to the Global Methane Pledge three years ago.

There are only five years left for the UK to meet its share of the pledge’s goal: to cut global methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030. The UK is way behind on effective action to meet the goal, but our new analysis shows that meeting the target is not only possible for the UK, but it could also exceed it with more action in the farming, energy and waste sectors, potentially reducing emissions by 37 per cent. Unfortunately, while the government continues to group methane under all greenhouse gases in policy measures, it is missing the chance to pull this important ‘emergency brake’ on climate change.

This is not just bad for the climate. Methane leaking into the atmosphere from landfill, oil and gas extraction sites and slurry tanks is a source of harmful air pollution which causes respiratory illness.

While businesses are starting to come up with promising solutions to cut emissions, they are being held back by the absence of supportive policy or meaningful regulation. On farms, for instance, novel slurry lagoons that trap fugitive methane and turn it into biogas are being trialled in Cornwall. The gas can be used to power machinery or sold on, providing a new revenue stream for the farm. But the equipment is expensive, and existing support is not designed to encourage more farmers to try it.

In the energy sector,  venting and flaring off methane from oil and gas installations is routine practice, even though technology has been around for years to stop it. Norway stopped doing it over 40 years ago. The UK has set a 2030 deadline to end the practice, but it’s only a voluntary target, and the government has dragged its heels on enforcement. Meanwhile, North Sea oil platforms continue to waste huge volumes of gas that could be captured and sold for energy, enough electricity to power 1.1 homes.

Subsidies for gas capture have helped to bring down methane emissions from organic waste in landfill by 80 per cent since 1990. But those subsidies end in 2027, and operators complain they can’t justify the expense and maintenance involved without support, threatening a resurgence in the emissions if they stop. We’ve proposed a new approach to prevent this cliff edge, where the gas is sold via expanded renewable energy contracts (CfDs).

Because methane doesn’t last as long in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, cutting it sooner has a rapid effect on limiting global warming, buying time for other carbon reduction strategies to work. But time is running out.

These are a number of actions that could be taken soon. Our new report, The climate emergency brake, provides a menu of cost effective ideas, all of which benefit the economy by offering other advantages like health protection or financial benefits.

At the COP29 climate summit last year Ed Miliband was outspoken about the need to do much more about the problem of methane, but he had no new policy to offer.  With COP30 coming up at the end of the year, this is the UK’s time return to the platform and shine by bringing an ambitious action plan to the table, as an example to the rest of the world.

Photo by Katie Rodriguez on Unsplash