China has revealed a comprehensive plan to address its methane emissions, even though it, as the world’s largest emitter of these polluting gases, hasn’t specified a particular target for reducing them.
Recent climate discussions between Beijing and Washington held in California over the weekend have raised optimism for potential progress at the COP28 summit in Dubai.
China, being the largest emitter of greenhouse gases and the primary producer of methane, largely from its coal mining industry, has acknowledged the need for action on methane.
However, it hasn’t endorsed the global pledge, supported by the United States and the European Union, to significantly reduce this highly potent greenhouse gas, which has a shorter atmospheric lifespan than carbon dioxide.
The International Energy Agency emphasized the urgent necessity for immediate reductions in methane emissions to mitigate climate warming.
In a broad plan published by China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the country outlined its intentions to enhance “emission monitoring, accounting, reporting, and verification systems.”
It also proposed general measures to improve “methane emission control in the energy sector.” Nevertheless, it didn’t specify a quantified emissions reduction target.
The plan includes initiatives to capture and repurpose methane emissions, with a commitment to recycle as much as six billion cubic meters of gas released by coal mines by 2025.
In 2022, China’s energy sector emitted 38.6 billion cubic meters (25,372 kilotons) of methane, accounting for 15.6 percent of the global share, as reported by the IEA’s Global Methane Tracker.
China additionally pledged to reduce gas flaring, a significant source of methane emissions, in energy extraction. It also outlined measures to minimize leaks and repurpose over 80 percent of livestock waste, another substantial source of methane emissions, by the year 2025.
COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber, who heads UAE oil giant ADNOC, hailed the plan as a “critical step for global climate action”.
“I am delighted to see China taking an important role in helping to reduce methane emissions,” he said.
But Li Shuo, incoming director of the China Climate Hub, wrote that while the plan offered “roadmaps for key sectors”, details were notably lacking.
“The lack of numerical targets underlines further work needed to enhance baseline data,” he said in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
