So if methane is this big a problem, what tools do we have, and are we using, to solve it? The first global agreement that methane was a problem came in the form of the Global Methane Pledge announced at COP26 at Glasgow in 2021. What’s happened since then, especially in the industry with the easiest to abate emissions: oil and gas?

We look at the International Methane Emissions Observatory, the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership, the new EU regulation on methane and proposals for financial instruments to help bring emissions down.

Host:

The show is presented by: Francesca Fazey

Affiliation:

The show is brought to you by: The 2Celsius Association

Contributors:

Raul Cazan, Founder of The 2Celsius Association, Bucharest, Romania

Kim O’Dowd, Campaigner at The Environmental Investigation Agency, London, UK

Dr Roland Kupers, Global Advisor to the United Nations Environment Programme’s International Methane Emissions Observatory, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Deborah Gordon, Senior Fellow, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University; Senior Principal at the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) Climate Program, Washington DC, USA

Dr Philippe Ciais, Associate Director, Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace (IPSL), Paris, France

Théophile Humann-Guilleminot, Campaign Manager, Clean Air Task Force ,Athens Greece

Dr Dave Lowry, Reader: Stable Isotope and Greenhouse Gas, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Royal Holloway, London UK

Dr Rebecca Fisher: Reader: Atmospheric Methane, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Royal Holloway, London UK

Dr Thoman Roeckmann, Professor of Atmospheric Physics and Chemistry, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Professor Jonathan Stern, Distinguished Research Fellow, The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, Oxford, UK

Melanie Kenderdine, Principal, Energy Futures Initiative, Washington DC, USA

Natural gas is the ideal bridge fuel to support the global energy transition, or so the story goes. But what about methane emissions? Environmentalists want us to throw it on the pile of the other fossil fuels and doom it to the past. The energy community says: Not so fast. Where are we on our energy transition journey when it comes to natural gas and if we’re going to invest in it going forward, what are the implications of the methane problem for our chosen direction to a renewable future?

Contributors:

Raul Cazan, Founder of The 2Celsius Association, Bucharest, Romania

Kim O’Dowd, Campaigner at The Environmental Investigation Agency, London, UK

Dr Roland Kupers, Global Advisor to the United Nations Environment Programme’s International Methane Emissions Observatory, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Deborah Gordon, Senior Fellow, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University; Senior Principal at the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) Climate Program, Washington DC, USA

Dr Philippe Ciais, Associate Director, Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace (IPSL), Paris, France

Théophile Humann-Guilleminot, Campaign Manager, Clean Air Task Force ,Athens Greece

Dr Dave Lowry, Reader: Stable Isotope and Greenhouse Gas, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Royal Holloway, London UK

Dr Rebecca Fisher: Reader: Atmospheric Methane, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Royal Holloway, London UK

Dr Thoman Roeckmann, Professor of Atmospheric Physics and Chemistry, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Professor Jonathan Stern, Distinguished Research Fellow, The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, Oxford, UK

Melanie Kenderdine, Principal, Energy Futures Initiative, Washington DC, USA

Manmade methane emissions pose a potent threat to the climate, but they aren’t emitted into a vacuum. They feed into the earth’s existing complex cycle of methane, and as much as half the methane that reaches the atmosphere every year comes from natural sources.

The most crucial of these is wetlands, and in addition to generating methane, they pose a potentially bigger danger: climate change feedbacks. You may have heard of the most famous: the threat of a huge methane release from the world’s permafrost regions. But it turns out the story might be more complex than we thought, and wetlands in tropical regions may constitute the read danger to watch…

Host:

The show is presented by: Francesca Fazey

Affiliation:

The show is brought to you by: The 2Celsius Association

Resource List:

1. Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)

2. International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO)

3. International Energy Agency (IEA)

4. Global Methane Tracker

5. United Nations Global Methane Pledge

6. Rocky Mountain Institute Climate Program

7. Oxford Institute for Energy Studies

8. Clean Air Task Force

9. Greenhouse Gas Laboratory, University of Royal Holloway

10. Romanian Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas

11. Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences, Paris

12. University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, USA

13. NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre, Washington DC, USA

Contributors:

Raul Cazan, Founder of The 2Celsius Association, Bucharest, Romania

Kim O’Dowd, Campaigner at The Environmental Investigation Agency, London, UK

Dr Roland Kupers, Global Advisor to the United Nations Environment Programme’s International Methane Emissions Observatory, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Deborah Gordon, Senior Fellow, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University; Senior Principal at the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) Climate Program, Washington DC, USA

Dr Philippe Ciais, Associate Director, Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace (IPSL), Paris, France

Théophile Humann-Guilleminot, Campaign Manager, Clean Air Task Force ,Athens Greece

Dr Dave Lowry, Reader: Stable Isotope and Greenhouse Gas, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Royal Holloway, London UK

Dr Rebecca Fisher: Reader: Atmospheric Methane, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Royal Holloway, London UK