Designing an EU methane performance standard for natural gas

Abstract

The largest share of methane emissions footprint from EU gas consumption is estimated to come from upstream emissions in countries supplying gas to the EU. A methane performance standard on natural gas can be defined for the upstream segments of the gas supply chain using an existing methane emissions reporting framework (OGMP 2.0) and targets and definitions already developed by industry. A methane performance standard could take the form of a mandatory requirement that all natural gas sold on the EU internal market meets a benchmark upstream emission intensity value equivalent to 0.2%. To cover both imported and domestically produced gas, the point of obligation for a methane performance standard would likely need to be all EU gas shippers. To incentivize shippers to conform with the performance standard, they would need to be penalised for the portion of their gas volumes for which the methane emission intensity exceeds the benchmark value.

据估算，就欧盟天然气消费所产生的甲烷排放足迹，其最大份额来自于向欧盟供应天然气的各个国家的上游排放。我们可以使用现有的甲烷排放报告框架（ 油气甲烷伙伴关系（OGMP）2.0）以及业内已制定的各项目标和定义为天然气供应链的 上游产业界定针对天然气的甲烷性能标准。甲烷性能标准可采取强制要求的形式，即强制要求在欧盟内部市场上出售的所有天然气均必须达到0.2％的基准上游排放强度值。为同时涵盖进口和国产天然气，甲烷性能标准的责任点可能需要包 括所有欧盟天然气托运商。为激励托运商遵守性能标准，需要对其甲烷排放强度超过基准值的该部分天然气量处以罚款。