• Air

62 Oil and Gas Companies Pledge to Reduce Methane, U.S. Companies Turn the Other Way

• air pollution
• Environmental Defense Fund
• flaring
• gas
• greenhouse gasses
• methane
• oil and gas
• UN Environment Program

This week, following a U.N. report showing that methane levels in the atmosphere are at an all-time high, more than 60 oil and gas companies joined a new voluntary agreement to report and reduce their emissions. The companies making the pledge represent 30% of global oil and gas operations, but none of them were American.

Why This Matters: According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the global oil and gas industry produced 82 gigatons of methane in 2019 alone.

• Politics

China and the U.S. Trade Environmental Barbs

• #30x30
• biodiversity
• China
• climate change
• emissions
• greenhouse gasses
• IUU fishing
• plastic
• pollution
• United Nations

Yesterday the Chinese government released a detailed condemnation of the U.S. government’s environment and climate policies.  Labeled as a “Fact Sheet of Environmental Damage Caused by the US,” it contains a litany of U.S. environmental failures.

Why This Matters:  The U.S.’s shot at China came after the Chinese announced at the UN General Assembly that China plans to be climate neutral by 2060.

• Climate Change

Methane Emissions Reach Historic Highs

• climate change
• greenhouse gas emissions
• greenhouse gasses
• methane

New research has found that global emissions of methane have reached the highest levels on record. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported, the data shows that the rate at which methane is now being released into the atmosphere, much of it from belching cows and leaky oil and gas wells, tilts the odds toward a […]

• Climate Change

Satellite Data Reveals Major New Methane Gas Leaks Along Pipelines

• greenhouse gas
• greenhouse gasses
• methane
• satellite monitoring

Last fall, satellites operated by the European Space Agency detected enormous methane leaks coming from Yamal pipeline that carries natural gas from Siberia to Europe. As Reuters reported, it was estimated that one leak alone was releasing 93 tons of methane every hour, meaning the daily emissions from the leakage were equivalent to the amount […]

• Air

Greenhouse Gasses Declining Globally, But In U.S., Air Pollution Not Down As Much

• #climatechange
• #conservationist
• air pollution
• COVID-19
• environment
• greenhouse gasses

A study published yesterday in the journal Nature Climate Change found that greenhouse gas emissions are down by 17% globally compared to 2019 levels thanks to strict coronavirus lockdowns, which could result in as much as a 7% decline in emissions for the year. 

Why This Matters:  We need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 4-7% each year globally for the foreseeable future to keep global temperature increases in check.

• Energy

Big Flares, Big Bankruptcy, Big Relief? Oil Sector Experiencing “Tectonic Shift”

• #environmen
• conservation
• greenhouse gasses
• methane
• oil and gas

A study by researchers at Harvard and the Environmental Defense Fund published yesterday in the journal of Science Advances found that ail and gas operations in the Permian Basin of Texas are flaring off more than twice the amount of methane emissions than previously estimated, according to CBS News. 

Why This Matters:  Several industry analysts continue to paint a dark picture for the future of the oil and gas industry.