This Wednesday, the European Union took another step towards its goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, the so-called package Fit for 55, one of the great pillars of the current mandate in Brussels. The Council of the EU (the States) and the European Parliament have reached a political agreement on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday to reduce methane emissions from the energy sector, the second largest responsible for climate change after carbon dioxide and a powerful pollutant.
“Another important step in the fight against climate change in the EU,” celebrated the third vice president and acting Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, an agreement reached during the Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU. Methane, she recalled, is responsible for “a third of current global warming”, so its reduction “will help achieve the EU’s climate objectives”, she stressed in a statement.
The agreement, which still must be ratified by the Council and the European Parliament before it can come into force, is the first European legislation that seeks to reduce methane emissions and minimize leaks of this gas by fossil fuel companies that operate in the EU, although it is expected that the regulations will also have an impact beyond European borders.
The agreed regulation – which once approved will be directly applied in all States – directly covers methane emissions from oil, fossil gas and coal, as well as biomethane once it is injected into the gas network.
It obliges companies in the fossil fuel sector to “detect and repair” methane leaks in their systems and to present them to the authorities of the European country in which they operate, within a maximum period of nine months after the law comes into force. , a “methane leak detection and repair program”, in addition to committing to carry out a first round of detection and repairs of its plants in the first year after the implementation of the regulations. Whenever a leak is detected, operators must “repair or replace all components” responsible for methane leaks above certain levels immediately and no later than five days after the problem is detected.
National authorities must carry out “periodic inspections” to verify compliance with the new requirements, which also prohibit the venting and burning of methane from drainage stations that release this gas into the atmosphere from 2025 and from ventilation wells by 2027. Similarly, the new regulations require countries to establish an “inventory” of inactive or abandoned wells and mines, monitor their emissions and adopt a mitigation plan for said emissions “as soon as possible.”
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Given that the EU imports more than 80% of the gas and oil it consumes, the regulations also plan to introduce, as of January 1, 2027, the obligation on importers to demonstrate that they carry out surveillance equivalent to that required within the community block. “The extension to imports” of the new European requirements “will have repercussions throughout the world,” said one of the speakers of the European Parliament, the German Jutta Paulus (The Greens), for whom, in addition, “fewer methane emissions “It means greater protection and more energy sovereignty.”
Regarding coal, the agreement provides for the Twenty-seven to measure and report on a “continuous” basis on methane emissions from underground and surface mines and also to carry out an inventory of abandoned or closed mines in the last 70 years and measure their emissions, except those that have been submerged for more than ten years. Burning and ventilation will also be gradually prohibited (2025 and 2027, respectively) in coal mines that emit more than 5 tons of methane per kiloton of coal extracted, a figure that will be reduced to 3 tons of methane per kiloton of coal. starting in 2031.
The Commission also welcomed the approval of a proposal launched almost two years ago, in December 2021. “This fundamental agreement will allow us to seriously tackle greenhouse gas emissions in the EU and beyond,” said the Commissioner. of Energy, Kadri Simson, for whom the new regulations will not only benefit the planet, but “will avoid wasting resources in tense global gas markets.” “It is good for the planet and for consumers,” agreed the vice-president of the Commission responsible for the Green Deal, Maros Sefcovic.
The agreement is known on the same day that Eurostat, the European statistics office, has reported a 5.3% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the EU economy during the second quarter of the year, in comparison with the same period in 2022. A reduction (from 867 million tons of CO₂ between April and June 2022 to 821 million in the same period in 2023) that has not affected the economy, since the EU’s GDP remained stable during that period, with only a “very small” variation (0.05%).
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