UNEP helps map methane emissions in Angola
Angola and Gabon host a new study supported by the UN and which aims to expose the amount of methane escaping from oil wells on the coast. With Nigeria, the two countries rank among the top oil producers in Africa.
The analysis is from the International Observatory on Methane Emissions of the United Nations Environment Program, UNEP. The goal is to fill the regional gap of “lack of data on emissions in the oil and gas sector”.
Global warming
Methane has a global warming potential more than 80 times greater than that of carbon dioxide, lasting up to 20 years after release into the atmosphere.
The emission of this greenhouse gas can occur in the stages of production, exploration, extraction, transportation and storage of the resource. There are leaks from equipment such as valves, pumps and piping during the transport and storage of natural gas.
The UN agency highlights that reducing methane emissions is one of the most effective measures to be taken by the energy sector to help face the climate crisis.
The Paris Agreement reduction targets cannot be achieved without cutting methane emissions by 40%-45% by 2030, UNEP points out. For the agency, it is necessary to be precise in achieving this goal.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
In 2021, UNEP launched the International Methane Emissions Observatory to help accelerate reductions to 2030 by limiting warming to 1,5°C or 2°C, as predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The agency defends climate action based on empirical data with a more productive performance.
Another recommendation is that investments and actions focus on what causes these emissions.
UNEP argues that lowering fossil fuel use, acting on agriculture and waste could help achieve all methane reductions and avoid nearly 0,3°C of warming by 2050.
To this end, the agency suggests that the energy sector, with emphasis on the production of oil, gas and coal, has technical solutions available at low and even negative cost.
Picture: © Arvind Vallabh
