Methane (CH4) is the main component of natural gas. The gas installations emit methane for different reasons and several actions have been taken by the industry, for decades, to reduce its emissions, mainly for safety reasons. Considering environmental concerns, the gas industry is developing mitigation procedures to further reduce methane emissions. CH4 is a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) that has an impact on the global climate changes.

However, despite methane being a more potent GHG than carbon dioxide (CO2) and its impact being 28 times higher than CO2, CH4 has a shorter atmospheric lifespan, on average 8-12 years, whereas CO2 persists in the atmosphere for many centuries.

The gas industry is strongly committed to accelerate methane emissions reduction and to support the EU’s 2030 climate ambition as well as its 2050 climate neutrality objective.

MARCOGAZ is recognised as a technical reference by international organisations like the European Commission, United Nations, OGMP 2.0, Methane Guiding Principles, among others, and actively contributes to identify and categorise all types of CH4 emissions. Not only MARCOGAZ endorses the stakeholders initiatives to reduce emissions and improve their reporting but also delivers ambitious methane targets for the mid and downstream gas industry.

MARCOGAZ developed a “bottom-up” (source specific) methodology to quantify the CH4 emissions. This methodology was instrumental for the development of a CEN Technical Specification from CEN/TC234/WG14. Following the methodology, the industry must report reliable figures to the authorities. MARCOGAZ actively contributes to the implementation of well structured, fit for purpose measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) system in the EU.

The industry works towards the identification and implementation of best practices to reduce methane emissions, including the definition of reduction targets at industry level. The reconciliation of the “bottom-up” and the “top-down” approaches for detection and quantification of CH4 emissions are proposed by the industry to further enhance early detection.

MARCOGAZ produced a compendium of best available techniques for venting and flaring which aim at disseminating technical knowledge among the industry to ensure these operations meet high level criteria.

MARCOGAZ is fostering innovation and monitoring the technological solutions to detect, quantify, report and mitigate CH4 emissions due to the Transmission, Storage, LNG and Distribution activities. MARCOGAZ’ Group is also investigating emissions resulting from new gases such as H2 and CO2 and their measurements and quantification to ensure technical knowledge is disseminated and corrective measures can be put in place by the industry. The Group also follows the mandates deriving from the Industrial Emissions Directive, concerning emissions of pollutants such as NOx, SOx, CO etc.