Fossil industry plans to reduce methane show major “gaps”, report says

“Oil and gas companies are worsening the climate crisis by failing to set strict targets to avoid methane leaks into the atmosphere,” the ‘Absolute Impact 2024’ report summarizes.

In recent years, the issue has already received attention at climate summits. At the climate summit in Dubai last year, 52 oil and gas companies even committed to achieving virtually zero emissions by 2030. This was met with skepticism, because there were no concrete plans.

A year later, with the COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, in full swing, Carbon Tracker finds that the promises of most companies contain “major gaps”. The report’s authors studied the climate plans of 27 major companies in the sector, including TotalEnergies, Shell and BP. “Oil and gas companies say they support climate action, while emissions from their products are causing increasingly severe storms, droughts, floods and heat waves,” said analyst Olivia Bisel, lead author of the report.

Agriculture and fossil fuel

Methane, the second most important greenhouse gas after CO₂, is the main component of natural gas. Methane leaks from oil and gas infrastructure, but is also caused by cows, rice fields and garbage dumps. Methane is naturally present in humid areas. Since the industrial revolution, methane has been responsible for 30 percent of global warming. After agriculture, the fossil fuel sector is the most important emitter.

Methane emissions are largely avoidable, at no great cost. But still emissions are not decreasing.