It started with a purple blob on a computer screen in Paris, France. The splotch, hovering over a patch of desert in eastern Algeria, was the tell-tale sign of a release of methane, a colourless, odourless gas supercharging climate change.
The leak was analysed by experts from the International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO), which is led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Analysts traced the plume to the Hassi Messaoud oil field, the oldest and largest such facility in Algeria.
While the leak has been noted in prior scientific research over the years, IMEO works to provide methane data like this directly to decisionmakers, so it is accessible and actionable. IMEO analysts sent alerts to the Algerian government and its national oil company and presented findings to both during an IMEO-hosted training in the country. Within a few months, the methane leaks ended, an environmental win akin to taking 500,000 cars off the road for a year, experts from IMEO say.
The situation illustrated how technology is helping drive down emissions of methane. But experts say it also underlined that the world needs to do much more to prevent releases of a potent greenhouse gas responsible for a reported 30 per cent of planetary warming.
“Now countries need to turn their ambitions into targeted and verifiable action,” says Manfredi Caltagirone, head of IMEO.
Right now, there is roughly 2.5 times the amount of methane in the atmosphere than there was during pre-industrial times and emissions have been rising in recent years.
Methane has become a focus of the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference (COP29). Host country Azerbaijan plans to push for reductions in methane in waste and food systems, which is estimated to be responsible for 20 per cent of methane emissions. Others are expected to lobby for reductions from the energy sector, which “has the greatest potential for quick and cost-effective reductions,” says Caltagirone.
Established in 2021, UNEP’s IMEO gathers methane-related data from a range of sources, including company reporting, peer-reviewed studies and government disclosures.
But a major component of the observatory is the Methane Alert Response System (MARS), the first global satellite detection and notification system providing actionable data on very large methane emissions. Since becoming operational in 2023, MARS has notified decision makers of more than 1,200 major emissions events across five continents. However, UNEP’s An Eye on Methane: Invisible but not unseen report released at COP29 shows that even as improvements in technology have made data more accessible, methane emissions continue to spike.
Methane leaks cost the oil and gas industry billions of dollars a year. And even though 40 per cent of those emissions could reportedly be avoided at no net cost, the industry has yet to deliver the large-scale progress needed to reduce emissions.
There may be multiple reasons for this, says Drew Shindell, Chair of the UNEP-convened Climate and Clean Air Coalition Scientific Advisory Panel. Those include a lack of awareness about the scale of emissions and the cost savings that could come from ending methane releases.
That has prompted some governments to step in. Shindell highlighted the fact that countries such as Nigeria are introducing a methane fee. “It’s heartening that two years after methane became a salient issue, there is already a carbon-tax equivalent being introduced,” he says.
The European Union is also trying to impose a “methane border adjustment,” which would use satellite data to understand the methane footprint of oil and gas imported into the EU.
The push to reduce methane emissions has been aided by satellite monitoring and other technological advances, says Shindell.
Yet, concrete, large-scale reductions have yet to materialize. The Global Methane Pledge, for example, was launched three years ago and aims to reduce methane emissions by 30 per cent from 2020 levels by 2030. So far 156 countries have signed the pledge but less than one-third have provided details on their reduction strategies, according to the International Energy Agency.
“We are still quite far from achieving these pledges, Shindell says. “It’s nice to have ambition but at the moment it’s similar to carbon dioxide – lots of pledges but still much to do.”
UN Climate Change Conference
The 29th session of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) is being held in Baku, Azerbaijan from 11 to 22 November. It aims to drive action on climate change by reducing emissions and halting global warming. You can follow live COP29 updates on UNEP’s climate action feed.
The Sectoral Solution to the climate crisis
UNEP is at the forefront of supporting the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global temperature rise well below 2°C, and aiming for 1.5°C, compared to pre-industrial levels. To do this, UNEP has developed the Sectoral Solution, a roadmap to reducing emissions across sectors in line with the Paris Agreement commitments and in pursuit of climate stability. The six sectors identified are: energy; industry; agriculture and food; forests and land use; transport; and buildings and cities.
