Methane Abatement in Developing Countries

3. Step 2: Setting national sector-specific methane reduction targets

Box 3.1. EFFECT recommendations: Methane reduction targets

What can governments do?

• Integrate methane emissions reduction into NDC targets and implementation plans.

• Set progressively ambitious methane emissions reduction targets.

• Require the public disclosure of methane emissions information, including publication on a website. This added layer of scrutiny may create an additional incentive for companies to comply.

• Publicly disclose progress made toward methane emissions reduction targets on a regular basis.

Source: Adapted from (OECD, 2022[1]).

Governments can send a strong signal of their intention to tackle methane emissions across the upstream oil and gas sector by setting out national sector-specific methane emission reduction targets, and by explaining how these targets contribute, in a nationally determined manner, to global mitigation efforts aligned with 1.5°C pathways, consistent with the Paris Agreement first global stocktake outcome adopted at COP28, calling for accelerating the substantial reduction of non-carbon-dioxide emissions globally, in particular methane emissions by 2030, while also transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner.

Targets may be voluntary or binding and can be expressed as tonnes of methane reduced, a percentage reduction below historic emission levels or a declining intensity ratio (i.e. methane emissions per unit of production).

Targets for methane (or GHG) emissions can be defined as absolute targets or as intensity target:

• An absolute target refers to a target that aims to reduce emissions by a set amount.

• Intensity-based targets are expressed as units of emissions per unit of activity. Activity can be measured at an aggregate level, for example in terms of GDP or per capita GDP, or at a more detailed level based on measures of underlying efficiency of the economy.

Intensity-based targets do not necessarily cap emissions. In fact, even if intensity targets are achieved, emissions may grow as the economy grows. For intensity-based targets to deliver absolute emission reductions the targets should be demanding enough: if the rate of decline in emissions intensity is higher than the rate of GDP growth, then absolute emissions will fall. An alternative approach is to combine intensity targets with absolute targets or caps (OECD, 2022[1]).

A number of voluntary international initiatives have emerged over the past few years to encourage the uptake of methane emissions targets. In 2019, the multilateral Global Methane Alliance (GMA) was launched to bring together governments, financing institutions, international organisations and NGOs, and industry to support ambitious methane reduction targets from the oil and gas industry and has called on countries to set targets of at least 45% emission reduction from 2005 levels by 2025, and 60-75% by 2030.

Setting methane emissions reduction targets are an important signal of governments’ intention to tackle methane emissions across the upstream oil and gas sector. However, in order to demonstrate further commitment, governments should also track and make public the status of progress toward these methane emissions reduction targets. This can add an additional layer of accountability and transparency as well as provide input for setting future progressively ambitious targets.

Alongside governments’ disclosure of methane emissions reduction targets, regulations can also require oil companies to publicly disclose their methane targets as well as progress toward those targets in that jurisdiction. Many IOCs have already publicly committed to various methane targets – either individually or as part of membership in an industry organisation or adherence to an international standard. For example, the Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter (OGDC) was launched at COP28 where participants agreed to aim for near-zero methane emissions by 2030 at operated facilities and to engage with joint operating partners to achieve near-zero methane emission at non-operated facilities. The Charter’s signatories include 31 NOCs and 22 IOCs – collectively representing more than 42% of global oil production (OGDC, 2023[2]).

In addition, the OGCI, whose member companies includes 12 large IOCs and NOCs, launched the Aiming for Zero Methane Emissions initiative in 2022, setting a 2025 methane intensity target of well below 0.20% from 2017 levels with a view to reach near zero methane emissions from operated assets by 2030 (OGCI, 2022[3]). OGCI methane intensity KPI is the sum of methane emissions of all upstream operated emissions of OGCI companies divided by the volume of natural gas sold. The denominator excludes oil volumes, so this KPI does not apply to pure oil players or specific assets that produce oil. OGCI member companies collectively report within OCGI their methane emissions both on an intensity basis and on an absolute basis. From 2017-2022, OGCI found that member companies halved emissions on both an absolute and on an intensity basis, with methane intensity ratios declining from 0.3% to 0.15%. However, it should be noted that this target was met collectively by OGCI as a group. Some OGCI companies may not have met target as individual OGCI companies, and will continue their efforts to reduce methane emissions.

However, the lack of sufficient enabling policies and regulations that incentivise company decarbonisation may be factors that could prevent some of the companies operating in those jurisdictions from being able to comply with a 1.5°C trajectory.

Setting methane reduction targets in Nationally Determined Contributions

At COP28, countries agreed to submit by February 2025 updated nationally determined contributions (NDCs 3.0), that are economy-wide, cover all GHGs, and are aligned with limiting global warming to 1.5°C to drive action on emissions reduction until 2035. Current NDCs present significant gaps in coverage from a global emissions perspective. For example, 15% of Parties, accounting for 46% of total global methane emissions in 2020, communicate corresponding measures for reducing methane emissions from fossil fuel operations (UNFCCC, 2023[4]). The first global stocktake recognised the urgent need to address persisting gaps to deliver the course correction needed to keep the 1.5°C goal within reach. The next round of NDCs is a significant opportunity for governments to set ambitious targets on methane mitigation in the oil and gas sector to address persisting gaps and lay out plans to achieve them, including means of implementation such as investment and finance.

The first global stocktake further encourages all Parties to align their NDCs with their Long-term Low GHG Emission Development Strategies (LT-LEDS). Embedding LT-LEDS implies articulating how natural gas production and use contribute to the achievement of climate objectives goals, sustainable development priorities and energy security needs. Anchoring methane abatement projects within the oil and gas sector decarbonisation pathways and just transition strategies will send clear signals to investors, help mobilise financial support, and contribute to broader systemic transformation. Sectoral analysis underpinning the preparation of NDCs provides the opportunity to explain how the oil and gas sector contributes to the overall economy-wide emission reduction targets, underpinned by robust implementation and investment plans that can support the delivery of national climate commitments.

For example, countries may adopt national methane action plans1 to clearly set out economy-wide ambitions for controlling methane emissions. National methane action plans often include high-level reduction targets for specific sectors and may also list specific mitigation measures that will be enacted in pursuit of these targets. For example, Canada’s Methane Strategy 2022 includes a commitment to reduce oil and gas sector emissions by 75% by 2030 compared to 2012 levels, alongside specific abatement measures and supporting programmes. In Viet Nam, the Methane Action Plan 2030 sets out targets to reduce economy-wide methane emissions by at least 30% below 2020 levels by 2030, with specific targets for the agriculture, waste, and energy sectors. In recent years there has been a significant uptake in countries developing national methane action plans, driven in part by the increasing membership in the GMP. In May 2023, around 50 countries had either adopted or were developing national methane action plans (CLDP, 2023[5]). According to the IEA, if all methane pledges made by countries and companies so far are implemented in full and on time, methane emissions from oil and gas would reduce by 55% by 2030. However, at present, there remains a gap between ambition and implementation as only one-third of the 156 members of the GMP have outlined sector-specific methane targets or have developed national methane action plans (IEA, 2024[6]).

Box 3.2. National methane action plans

Côte d'Ivoire’s National Action Plan on Short-lived Climate Pollutants

In 2019, Côte d'Ivoire released a National Action Plan on Short-lived Climate Pollutants (NAP) in order to align its short-term development objectives with its long-term aspirations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The objective of this NAP was to develop an inventory of emissions of short-lived climate pollutants and to identify measures to reduce emissions of these pollutants at the national level.

Côte d'Ivoire’s NAP sets out specific measures to address methane emission from the oil and gas sector. This includes a programme to strengthen regulatory frameworks and technical capacity on fugitive emissions from venting, as well as improved control of unintentional leakages. In this regard, the NAP sets out the following goals for the oil and gas sector:

• Reduce 50% of avoidable fugitive emissions by 2030; and

• Reduce 70% of avoidable fugitive emissions by 2040.

Ghana's National Action Plan to Mitigate Short-Lived Climate Pollutants

In 2018, Ghana released a NAP to mitigate Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCPs). The NAP exercise led to the identification and prioritisation of 16 short-lived climate pollutants mitigation measures across five main sectors: energy, transport, industrial process, agriculture, forestry and waste. The NAP includes an inventory of SLCPs across the economy and identifies methane as the most dominant SLCP as well as the second most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide.

Ghana’s NAP notes the role of gas production on the release of SLCPs. Gas flaring is identified as a SCLP source activity, and the NAP recommends the implementation of a commissioning plan for the production of additional non-associated gas from the Sankofa fields.

Nigeria’s National SLCP Action Plan

In 2019, Nigeria released a comprehensive National SLCP Action Plan (NAP) with the aim of reducing SCLPs and methane emissions by 61% by 2030. The NAP identifies 22 mitigation measures targeted at 8 different source sectors in order to reduce emissions from major SLCPs including methane, as well as reducing emissions of co-emitted long-lived greenhouse gases such as carbon-dioxide and other air pollutants.

Nigeria’s NAP sets out specific abatement measures to address methane emissions from the oil and gas sector. These include the elimination of gas flaring, control of fugitive emissions from oil production and processing, and reductions in methane leakage from transportation and distribution. The NAP sets out targets for each of the 22 abatement measures.

Source: (MINEDD, 2019[7]); (EPA, 2018[8]); (Federal Ministry of Environment, 2019[9]).

Incorporating methane reduction targets in NDCs, can be a useful tool to align gas development with climate objectives. NDCs not only reflect a country’s ambitions for mitigation but also take into account its domestic context and capabilities. As such, they may be expressed as conditional or unconditional. Unconditional targets refer to measures and actions that a country can implement based on its own capabilities. Whereas a conditional NDC, refers to areas where international support is required in order for a country to meet that commitment.

Table 3.1. GHG and methane emissions reduction targets in NDCs

	Reduction target	Date	Nature of commitment	NDC submission date
Algeria	Reduce gas flaring to 1%	2030	Unconditional	20 October 2016
Angola	Reduce flaring – 490 MMSCF/day	2030	Unconditional	31 May 2021
	Reduce flaring – 110 MMSCF/day	2030	Conditional
Brunei	Zero routine flaring	2030	Unconditional	31 December 2020
Egypt	65% reduction in GHG emissions (from 2015 baseline)	2030	Conditional	26 June 2023
Gabon	63% reduction in GHG emissions from flaring (from 2000 baseline)	2025	Unconditional	2 November 2016
Ghana	20% reduction in fugitive methane from oil and gas infrastructure (from 2019 baseline)	2030	Unconditional	4 November 2021
Mexico	Reduce GHG emissions from the oil and gas sector by 14%	2030	Unconditional	17 November 2022
Nigeria	Zero gas flaring	2030	Conditional	30 July 2021
	60% reduction in fugitive methane emissions	2031	Conditional
Oman	Zero routine flaring	2030	Unconditional	29 July 2021
	Reduce GHG emissions from the oil and gas sector by 17% (from 2021 baseline)	2030	Mixed	29 November 2023
Qatar	Zero routine flaring	2030	Unconditional	24 August 2021
Saudi Arabia	Zero flaring	2030	Unconditional	23 October 2021

Note: Qatar’s NDC commitment is made in respect of Qatar’s NOC (Qatar Energy).

Source: (UNFCCC, 2023[10]); (World Bank, 2022[11]).

As of 2024, there are more than 190 NDCs in place. These include around 35 with specific targets for reducing methane emissions (from all sectors of the economy) and 20 which set out specific measures to reduce methane emissions from fossil fuels (IEA, 2024[6]). While many oil and gas producing countries have committed to reducing methane emissions in their NDCs,2 only a few have set specific oil and gas sector methane reduction targets in their NDCs (World Bank, 2022[12]). In some cases, countries have adopted broader GHG reduction targets which can include methane reduction commitments indirectly – for example commitments to zero routine flaring are designed to prevent the release of CO₂ but will cover methane as well as small amounts of methane are emitted during flaring unless the flare efficiency is 100%. Ghana and Nigeria are the only countries identified that include specific methane reduction targets in their NDCs – see Table 3.1 above.

The adoption of methane emission reduction targets provides clear policy direction for the development of regulations to achieve set emission reduction targets – see Box 3.3 for the approach taken in Nigeria.

Box 3.3. Nigeria: From methane reduction targets to comprehensive upstream regulations

Nigeria is the world’s thirteenth-largest oil and gas producer, with an average production of 1 268 000 barrels of crude oil per day in 2023. Natural gas production takes place on smaller scale, with Nigeria producing 45.9 bcm of natural gas in 2021. Nigeria has consistently been among the world’s top seven largest gas flaring countries by volume and emitted 3 306 kt of methane from its energy sector in 2022.

Beginning in 2019, the Nigerian government, including the Federal Ministry of Environment and Nigeria’s oil and gas regulator, collaborated with the Clean Air Task Force (CATF) to enhance Nigeria’s national inventory for methane emissions (using CoMAT to calculate emissions) and to lay the groundwork for comprehensive policy development. On the back of these efforts:

• in 2021, Nigeria updated its NDC, conditionally committing to reducing fugitive methane emissions by 60% by 2031 and achieving net-zero by 2060 and joined the Global Methane Pledge at COP26; and

• in 2022, Nigeria became the first country in Africa to regulate methane emissions from its oil and gas sector, when the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) released the Guidelines for Management of Fugitive Methane and Greenhouse Gases Emissions in the Upstream Oil and Gas Operations in Nigeria. The purpose of these guidelines is to achieve Nigeria’s emission mitigation and reduction targets of the NDCs in the oil and gas sector. In this regard, the guidelines set out key abatement measures to eliminate routine gas flaring (100% by 2030) and control fugitive methane emissions (60% methane reduction by 2030). The guidelines also direct operators to prevent and control methane emissions through GHG management plans, monitoring and inspection requirements, and operational and equipment standards.

Source: (Trading Economics, 2023[13]); (Aizarani, 2023[14]); (World Bank, 2023[15]); (NUPRC, 2022[16]), (IEA, 2023[17]).

Setting progressive targets to reduce methane emissions

Developing producer countries should set specific and progressively ambitious methane emissions reduction targets. For example, in its first NDC submission in 2021, Angola committed to reduce flaring by 295 MMSCF per day over the period 2015-25 (as measured from its 2015 baseline), with a further reduction of 490 MMSCF per day by 2030. Nigeria’s 2021 NDC conditionally commits to zero gas flaring by 2030 and to a 60% reduction of fugitive methane emissions by 2031 (UNFCCC, 2023[11]).

In the United Kingdom, progressive methane emissions reduction targets are set out in the North Sea Transition Deal – a plan for how the UK government and the offshore oil and gas sector will work together to deliver on GHG emissions reduction targets and to develop the required skills and infrastructure to meet these targets. The North Sea Transition Deal sets out GHG emissions reduction targets of 10% in 2025, 25% in 2027, and 50% in 2030 (as measured from its 2018 baseline) (BEIS & OGUK, 2021[18]).

References

[19] AfriCatalyst (2023), Mobilizing Finance for Methane Action in Africa, AfriCatalyst, https://africatalyst.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Mobilizing-Finance-for-Methane-Action-in-Africa.pdf.

[14] Aizarani, J. (2023), Natural gas production worldwide in 2021, by country, Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/264101/world-natural-gas-production-by-country/.

[18] BEIS & OGUK (2021), North Sea Transition Deal, Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/605b148ce90e0724c7d30c2b/north-sea-transition-deal_A_FINAL.pdf.

[5] CLDP (2023), Methane Abatement Handbook, U.S. Department of Commerce, https://cldp.doc.gov/sites/default/files/2023-09/CLDP%20Methane%20Abatement%20Handbook.pdf.

[8] EPA (2018), National Action Plan to Mitigate Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (Ghana), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), https://www.ccacoalition.org/policy-database/national-action-plan-mitigate-short-lived-climate-pollutants-ghana.

[9] Federal Ministry of Environment (2019), National Action Plan to reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCPs), Nigerian Federal Ministry of Environment, https://climatechange.gov.ng/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/nigeria-s-national-action-plan-nap-to-reduce-short-lived-climate-pollutants-slcps-.pdf.

[6] IEA (2024), Global Methane Tracker 2024, International Energy Agency, Paris, https://www.iea.org/reports/global-methane-tracker-2024.

[17] IEA (2023), Global Methane Tracker 2023, International Energy Agency, Paris, https://www.iea.org/reports/global-methane-tracker-2023.

[7] MINEDD (2019), Cote d’Ivoire National SLCP Action Plan, Ministry of Environment and Sustainaible development (MINEDD), https://www.ccacoalition.org/policy-database/summary-cote-divoire-national-slcp-action-plan.

[16] NUPRC (2022), Guidelines for Management of Fugitive Methane and Greenhouse Gases Emissions in the Upstream Oil and Gas Operations in Nigeria, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, https://www.nuprc.gov.ng/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/METHANE-GUIDELINES-FINAL-NOVEMBER-10-2022.pdf.

[1] OECD (2022), Equitable Framework and Finance for Extractive-based Countries in Transition (EFFECT), OECD Development Policy Tools, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/7871c0ad-en.

[3] OGCI (2022), Aiming for Zero Methane Emissions Initiative, Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, https://aimingforzero.ogci.com/.

[2] OGDC (2023), Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter, Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter, https://www.ogdc.org/about/.

[13] Trading Economics (2023), Crude Oil Production – Africa, Trading Economics, https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/crude-oil-production?continent=africa.

[10] UNFCCC (2023), Nationally Determined Contributions Registry, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, https://unfccc.int/NDCREG.

[4] UNFCCC (2023), Nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement - Synthesis report by the secretariat, UNFCCC Secretariat, Bonn, https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cma2023_12.pdf.

[15] World Bank (2023), Methane emissions in energy sector (thousand metric tons of CO2 equivalent) - Nigeria, World Bank Open Data, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.METH.EG.KT.CE?end=2019&locations=NG&start=1990&view=chart.

[11] World Bank (2022), Financing Solutions to Reduce Natural Gas Flaring and Methane Emissions, World Bank, http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37177.

[12] World Bank (2022), Global Flaring and Venting Regulations: A Comparative Review of Policies, World Bank, https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/fd5b55e045a373821f2e67d81e2c53b1-0400072022/global-flaring-and-venting-regulations-a-comparative-review-of-policies.

Notes

← 1.  National methane action plans are often included within broader action plans to address other short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs).

← 2.  For example, in Africa, all countries have committed to reducing methane emissions in their NDCs except Libya, South Sudan and Somalia (AfriCatalyst, 2023[19]).