Canada set a high bar globally when the country announced new standards Monday to crack down on planet-warming methane emissions, say observers.
The federal government released draft regulations that will effectively ban oil and gas companies from venting or flaring methane and impose more stringent monitoring requirements to reduce the release of this potent greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.
The proposed changes position Canada at the forefront of global efforts to reduce methane emissions, but the changes must be adopted quickly along with other complementary climate policies, politicians and environmental groups urge.
“This is a really critical step,” said Green Party MP Mike Morrice in a phone interview with Canada’s National Observer. “I wish it had happened seven years ago… The Prime Minister stood on the White House lawn with (former U.S. president) Barack Obama in 2016 talking about jointly tackling methane emissions.
“We know methane is responsible for around 30 per cent of the current rise in global average temperatures… Reducing and eliminating methane is one of the most cost-effective ways to take action on climate.”
The draft regulations tighten emissions-monitoring requirements for companies. These include more frequent leak-detection monitoring and requiring annual third-party audits to verify results reported by companies. The new measures — which deliver on Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault’s 2022 commitment to reduce national methane emissions at least 75 per cent below 2012 levels by 2030 — will be rolled out in early 2027.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that is 86 times more powerful than carbon for the first 20 years in the atmosphere. About half of the methane released in Canada comes from oil and gas facilities, according to the federal government.
“Reducing methane by 75 per cent is fully a third of what the Canadian oil and gas sector needs to do in terms of overall emission reductions by 2030,” Rick Smith, president of the Canadian Climate Institute, told Canada’s National Observer at this year’s annual United Nations climate conference in Dubai. “It makes everything else easier and it’s a big first step.”
“To fix the methane problem, you don’t need to discover a new technology. You just need to be determined as a government, as a regulator, as the Canadian government is today,” said Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), at Guilbeault’s announcement in Dubai.
This announcement matters to the world, not just Canada, because the country is the fourth-largest producer of oil and gas, said Guilbeault.
“I think we’re seeing here the beginning of a global movement toward almost eliminating methane emission from the oil and gas sector,” said Guilbeault. He noted 15 Canadian oil companies committed to reaching near-zero methane emissions by 2030, followed by commitments from 50 international companies.
