Countries must do more to recover methane, warns IEA

No country has a comprehensive methane recovery and use policy framework in place, even though methane's potency as a greenhouse gas and its short atmospheric lifetime means reducing emissions of the gas is "a particularly effective tactic for mitigating the near term impacts of climate change", says the International Energy Agency - IEA

In a new report, Energy sector methane recovery and use: the importance of policy, it says "one of the main challenges is to increase awareness about the magnitude of methane emissions and the value of the lost fuel, particularly in the oil and gas sector. There are also legal and regulatory barriers to overcome relating to methane ownership at coal mines and landfills and in obtaining access to the electricity grid to sell back power that is generated at landfills, coal mines, or agricultural operations".