COP29: Satellites detect methane leaks, but ‘super-emitters’ don’t fix them

The world has more ways than ever to detect the invisible methane emissions that are responsible for a third of global warming so far. But according to a report released at the COP29 climate summit, methane “super emitters” rarely take action when warned they are leaking large amounts of the potent greenhouse gas.

“We don’t see the transparency and sense of urgency that we need,” says Manfredi Caltagironedirector of the United Nations Environment Program’s International Methane Emissions Observatory, which recently launched a system that uses satellite data to alert methane emitters to leaks.

Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas to tackle after carbon dioxide, and a growing number of countries have pledged to cut methane emissions to prevent near-term warming. At last year’s COP28 climate summit, many of the world’s largest oil and gas companies also pledged to “eliminate” methane emissions from their operations.

Today, a growing number of satellites are beginning to detect methane leaks from the largest sources of such emissions: oil and gas infrastructure, coal mines, landfills and agriculture. That data is critical to holding issuers accountable, says Mark Brownstein at the Environmental Defense Fund, an environmental organization that recently launched its own methane detection satellite. “But data in itself does not solve the problem,” he says.

The first year of the UN’s methane warning system illustrates the yawning gap between data and action. The program last year 1225 warnings issued to governments and companies when it identified methane plumes from oil and gas infrastructure large enough to be detected from space. The report now notes that issuers have taken steps to control these leaks only 15 times, a response rate of less than 1 percent.

There are a number of possible reasons for this, says Caltagirone. Issuers may lack technical or financial resources and some sources of methane may be difficult to plug, although emissions from oil and gas infrastructure are generally thought to be the easiest to deal with. “It’s plumbing. It’s not rocket science,” he says.

Another explanation could be that broadcasters are still getting used to the new warning system. However, other methane monitors have reported a similar lack of response. “Our success rate is not much better,” says Jean-François Gauthier at GHGSat, a Canadian company that has been providing similar satellite warnings for years. “It’s on the order of 2 or 3 percent.”

Some successes have been achieved. For example, the UN this year issued several warnings to the Algerian government about a methane source that has been leaking continuously since at least 1999, with a warming effect equivalent to half a million cars being driven in a year. In October, satellite data showed it had disappeared.

But the overall picture suggests that monitoring is not yet translating into emission reductions. “Simply showing methane plumes is not enough to trigger action,” says Rob Jackson at Stanford University in California. A core problem he sees is that satellites rarely reveal who owns the leaking pipeline or the well emitting methane, making accountability difficult.

Methane is a major topic of discussion at the COP29 meeting, now taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan. A meeting This week on “non-CO2 greenhouse gases” convened by the US and China, countries announced several actions on methane emissions. They include a methane fee in the US, which is aimed at oil and gas emitters – although many expect the new Trump administration to reverse that rule.