Expert Interpretation | Promote China's methane emission control to a new level

　　OneThe importance of methane emission control

　　Methane is the world's second largest greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, and it is important to fully control methane emissions.

　　First, it is conducive to the realization of multiple effects such as climate. Methane is not only a greenhouse gas, but also a high-quality fuel and chemical raw material, and is also the main component of gas gas controlled in the field of coal mine safety, and has synergy with the control of pollutants such as oil and gas VOCs and landfill odor, so the effective control of methane emissions has the climate benefits of slowing down global temperature rise, the economic benefits of energy resource utilization, the safety benefits of reducing production accidents and the environmental benefits of collaborative control of pollutants.

　　Second, it is conducive to slowing down the global temperature rise. According to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, the global warming potential of methane is 27.9 times that of carbon dioxide at a centennial scale and 81.2 times that at a 20-year scale, and its duration in the atmosphere is about 12 years. The assessment also notes that to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, the world will need to significantly reduce methane emissions by 2030.

　　Third, it will help show that we are responsible as a major country. From a global perspective, strengthening methane emission control and actively participating in relevant international cooperation and exchanges will expand China's international influence and discourse power in the global response to climate change, and further enhance China's image as a responsible major country.

　　TwoStatus quo of methane emission control at home and abroad

　　In recent years, the international community has attached great importance to methane emission control, actively committed to methane emission reduction, and taken practical actions.

　　Methane emissions in advanced economies are generally on a downward trend. Since the 90s of the last century, the United States has successively released the "Methane Emission Reduction Strategy" and "Methane Emission Reduction Action Plan", launched the natural gas and agricultural star voluntary emission reduction action, formulated and revised oil and gas and waste emission standards, and implemented a mandatory corporate greenhouse gas emission reporting system. In 2020, the EU released the EU Methane Reduction Strategy, and in 2023 passed a regulation on reducing methane emissions from the energy sector. In addition, in 2021, the United States and the EU also launched the "Global Methane Pledge", pledging to collectively reduce global methane emissions by 30% by 2030 compared with 2020 levels, and held an annual ministerial meeting in November 2022 to review the progress of the commitment. According to the greenhouse gas inventories submitted by the United States and the European Union to the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, methane emissions in the United States and the European Union in 2021 decreased by about 14% and 37%, respectively, compared with 1990, and methane emissions in developed countries decreased by 29% overall in 2020 compared to 1990.

　　China attaches great importance to methane emission control. As early as 2007, the State Council issued the "National Plan for Climate Change", which clearly put forward the goal of "striving to control the growth rate of methane emissions", and since the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan", the "Work Plan for Controlling Greenhouse Gas Emissions" and other documents issued by the State Council have clarified the relevant requirements for methane emission control. At the industry level, a series of actions have also been carried out, such as the issuance of coal mine gas emission limit standards, the introduction of subsidy policies to encourage the recycling of coal mine gas, the establishment of the "China Oil and Gas Enterprise Methane Emission Control Alliance", the promotion of livestock and poultry breeding waste resource utilization, and the acceleration of large-scale waste incineration and disposal instead of landfill, etc., and have achieved positive results. However, the energy structure dominated by coal and the fact that rice is the largest food crop determine that China's total methane emissions are relatively large. According to published national greenhouse gas inventories, China's methane emissions increased by 11% in the 10 years from 2005 to 2014. Therefore, it is urgent to formulate special methane emission control policy documents, further strengthen methane emission control policies and actions, and continuously consolidate the basic work in terms of technology and data.

　　ThreeProspects for methane emission control in China

　　For the first time, the "Methane Plan" clarifies the methane emission control targets in China's key areas by 2030, comprehensively proposes to strengthen the construction of methane monitoring, accounting, reporting and verification system, and accelerate the emission control in the energy, agriculture and waste fields.

　　Build a cornerstone and comprehensively consolidate the basic ability to control emissions. In view of the emission characteristics of methane leakage and escape, in order to effectively improve the data basis of emission control, the "Methane Plan" will strengthen the construction of methane monitoring, accounting, reporting and verification system as the first key task, requiring coal mines, oil and gas fields, breeding farms, landfills and sewage treatment plants and other large-scale emission sources to gradually achieve regular data reporting, and national and provincial regional methane emission data will also achieve regular accounting. In view of the problems existing in the R&D, promotion and application of methane recycling science and technology in China, the "Methane Plan" proposes to strengthen the construction of technology demonstration projects, include them in the low-carbon technology catalog, promote the integration and industrialization of equipment and technology, and deploy a series of combined measures such as the construction of national key R&D and innovation projects and major projects. At the same time, it is also an important task to promote the formulation and revision of methane-related regulations, standards and technical specifications. By continuously consolidating the basic work of data, technologies and standards related to methane emission control, it will provide effective support for emission control management, evaluation and supervision.

　　Focus on key points and pragmatically promote emission control in various fields. Energy activities and agricultural activities are the main areas of methane emissions in China, and also involve China's energy and food security and the improvement of people's livelihood. Combined with the current work foundation, the "Methane Plan" pragmatically puts forward the goals and tasks of methane emission control in the fields of energy, agriculture and waste treatment, including strengthening the comprehensive utilization of coal mine gas, associated gas and venting air in oil and gas fields, promoting the application of leak detection and repair technology and gradually reducing conventional flare in the oil and gas system, promoting the resource utilization of livestock and poultry manure, scientifically controlling intestinal fermentation and orderly promoting methane emission control in paddy fields, and promoting the reduction of domestic waste at the source. Classified recycling and resource utilization, as well as sewage treatment, methane collection and utilization. At the same time, the integrated control of pollutants and methane will be strengthened to achieve policy synergy. According to the estimation of relevant experts, after the implementation of the "Methane Plan", China's methane emission reduction is expected to achieve 5 million tons in 2030.

　　Emphasis on incentives, fully mobilize the enthusiasm of the main body of emission control. In view of the low technical maturity and poor economics of some methane emission reduction projects, such as the utilization of exhaust wind and gas, and the lack of motivation for enterprises to take the initiative to carry out such emission reduction projects under the existing circumstances, the Methane Plan proposes to encourage enterprises to carry out emission reduction by supporting eligible methane utilization and emission reduction projects into the voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction trading mechanism and obtaining additional financial support from the market. Other economic incentives include promoting the inclusion of methane emission reduction projects in the eco-environment-oriented development project library, encouraging methane emission reduction projects to carry out climate investment and financing, and exploring and researching methane emission reduction incentives and subsidies for major ruminant breeding and rice growing areas. By continuously improving the corresponding incentive means and effective market-oriented mechanisms, we will support emission control enterprises to take the initiative to reduce emissions and take the lead in reducing emissions to the greatest extent.

　　Strictly supervise and effectively play the leading role of standards. Although China has successively issued standards such as coal mine gas emission limits, pollutant discharge from urban sewage treatment plants, pollution control of domestic waste landfills and sanitary landfill specifications for domestic waste after 2000, respectively, put forward relevant quantitative requirements for methane emission control, the implementation and implementation of the above standards need to be further strengthened due to the temporary lack of upper-level methods, the lack of high-precision monitoring technology and equipment, and the lack of professional and technical personnel. To this end, the "Methane Plan" proposes to strengthen the supervision of methane emission control, promote the revision of relevant regulations and standards for coal mine safety in a timely manner, and establish and improve the technical standard system. By strengthening relevant laws and regulations, standards, etc., methane emissions will be strictly controlled in accordance with the law.

　　Strengthen awareness and widely mobilize the participation of the whole society. Compared with carbon dioxide, the concept of methane emission control is still relatively unfamiliar to all sectors of society, and the action force is relatively insufficient. The "Methane Plan" clearly will strengthen organizational guarantees, strengthen the implementation of responsibilities, strengthen publicity and training, improve evaluation and supervision, etc. as an important support guarantee for the organization and implementation, which will not only greatly popularize the basic knowledge of methane emission control, but also consolidate the emission control responsibilities of localities, departments and industries, stimulate the innovation vitality of enterprises and institutions to participate in methane emission control, and guide universities and research institutes to research and invest in methane generation mechanism, emission characteristics, new and efficient emission reduction and monitoring technologies.

　　It is worth noting that the "Methane Plan" also clearly proposes to strengthen overall coordination, and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will establish a coordination and cooperation working mechanism with relevant departments to organize the implementation and coordination of major problems encountered in the implementation of the "Methane Plan".

　　(The authors are Xu Huaqing and Ma Cuimei, National Center for Climate Strategy)