After leading the world on cutting methane, Canada faces stringent new standards in U.S. and Europe | 24CA News

Canada has been a world chief in regulating methane emissions from its oil and fuel sector, placing out laws effectively forward of many different main emitters, however it must now replace these laws or danger falling behind the U.S. and Europe, consultants say.

This is an enormous 12 months for motion on methane in Canada and overseas, and the federal authorities is planning on releasing new methane laws this 12 months that will additional cut back emissions of the potent greenhouse fuel from oil and fuel manufacturing websites.

“Methane is one of the big opportunities for Canada to act quickly on climate, because methane is such a potent greenhouse gas, and if we stop adding it to the atmosphere we can really reduce the rate at which we’re heating up the planet,” stated Tom Green, local weather coverage professional on the David Suzuki Foundation.

Intensity vs. discount

But the way in which Canada measures success in lowering methane might not line up with different nations. The federal authorities has set a near-term purpose of lowering methane emissions a minimum of 40 per cent beneath 2012 ranges by 2025, and a extra formidable purpose of 75 per cent beneath 2012 ranges by 2030.

In distinction, U.S. laws coming into impact subsequent 12 months and European Union (EU) requirements being negotiated proper now are centered on a marker known as methane depth. 

The methane depth marker measures the proportion of methane that’s misplaced throughout manufacturing (from leaks and venting from items of kit or pipeline, or different sources). The ultimate methane depth can be zero, since that methane is each precious as a gas and dangerous to the atmosphere. 

“I think there’s an importance of alignment in the goal. We need to reduce methane as soon as possible. It’s the most important, most powerful immediate climate action we can take,” stated Matthew Johnson, head of the Energy and Emissions Research Lab at Carleton University.

“And countries and jurisdictions all around the world are recognizing this.”

Aligning with different nations

The U.S has set a methane depth goal of 0.2 per cent, which means that solely 0.2 per cent of the full methane produced is misplaced within the manufacturing course of. Companies must pay an emissions cost for any extra methane that is misplaced over that quantity.

The EU is equally contemplating a 0.2 per cent methane depth goal, however can also impose it on any fuel imports. Lawmakers within the European Parliament have requested for the stringent requirements to be utilized to different nations which export their fuel to the EU, though the ultimate laws have but to be determined.

“As long as we’re aligning on the goal, looking for a target of 0.2 per cent intensity and below, and then heading towards net zero from there, we will be fine,” Johnson stated. 

“But if we don’t and we’re fixated on some percentage reduction from some arbitrary baseline, then we really do risk falling behind.”

Complicating issues additional for Canada, analysis from Johnson’s crew and others has persistently proven that Canada’s official estimates for methane emissions are considerably undercounted — precise emissions are 1.5 to 2 occasions increased. He says meaning we do not actually have an correct image of what emissions have been in 2012 — and so we would not actually know the way a lot Canada decreased its emissions by.

Cutting methane has fast advantages

Attention has grown round methane, as a result of it’s about 80 occasions stronger than carbon dioxide as a warming fuel. But it lasts for a really quick time frame, which means reductions of methane now would have an effect on international temperatures in a short time.

Because of this mix of things, chopping methane is seen as important in limiting international warming to 1.5 C — particularly because the world teeters extraordinarily near that threshold.

“Right now industry just vents a lot of methane into the atmosphere, just releases it basically. We’ve got to stop doing that,” Green stated. 

“We’ve got to stop using equipment that allows methane to escape in the atmosphere because now we know how potent it is and we have the technologies to avoid doing that.”

New methane detection expertise

Research has now centered on the place precisely these methane emissions are coming from. Johnson’s crew has used plane-mounted LiDAR (a type of radar) to detect methane emissions from the air, and performed large-scale surveys over oil and fuel websites in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan.

“With the really high degree of spatial resolution that our technology provides, then at that point you can see the individual pieces of equipment that emissions are coming from,” stated Asa Carré-Burritt, director of coverage and exterior affairs at Bridger Photonics, the Montana-based firm that made the remote-sensing tools that Johnson’s crew used.

“And that’s really important because instead of trying to figure out, you know, where on the site you need to go to remediate the emission, you can basically walk right up to the piece of equipment and, you know, do an analysis there.”

Carré-Burritt says it is essential for brand spanking new laws in Canada and elsewhere to incentivize corporations to make use of new and correct methane detection applied sciences. This could be difficult, as a result of corporations additionally do not wish to be penalized for any new sources of methane they discover.

“If we have the capacity with our sensitivity to detect a greater volume of emissions, we want to make sure that operators are rewarded for using the best-in-class technology and not penalized in any way,” Carré-Burritt stated.

Ben Cahill, senior fellow on the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., stated utilizing methane detection applied sciences are rising at a really quick tempo — and regulators want to determine tips on how to accommodate them. That consists of detection from satellites, airplanes and drones.

“The challenge for regulators is to try to allow those kinds of innovations to happen and give some kind of flexibility with the way the regulations develop but still create firm standards that really incentivize companies to drive down emissions as much as possible,” he stated.

Looking to a worldwide LNG market

Cahill has been following the current U.S. and EU laws. He identified that the present marketplace for liquefied pure fuel (LNG) — when fuel is changed into liquid gas to be exported by ship — could be very tight, after Europe misplaced most of its fuel provide from Russia. 

Now, Europe is importing much more LNG from the U.S. and elsewhere, making it dearer for growing nations to entry the gas. That signifies that nations will purchase LNG wherever they will get it, no matter environmental issues — a minimum of for now.

“LNG projects, project promoters, they always compete on cost. They’re chasing after the same buyers. I think cost and contract terms still drive deals,” Cahill stated. That’s what the business is absolutely involved about.

“But in the background are these concerns about emissions intensity, and they’ll only grow over time. So it’s an important element of competitiveness to think about these sustainability concerns and position your business to be able to deliver those volumes that you think the market will need in the future.”

That’s seemingly an essential concern for Canada, and particularly B.C., the place a significant LNG export terminal is being constructed. LNG Canada, which may have an export terminal in Kitimat on the northwestern coast of B.C., will export LNG to Asia.

Johnson’s analysis suggests B.C.’s methane depth is round 0.4 per cent — not far off from the 0.2 per cent goal.

For Johnson, that is a way more significant metric for assessing B.C.’s — and Canada’s — efficiency on methane emissions.

“What ultimately matters is how much methane makes it to the atmosphere, not what kind of relative reduction we might or might not have achieved,” he stated.