Climate action: Council and Parliament reach deal on new rules to cut methane emissions in the energy sector

The Council and the Parliament today reached a provisional political agreement on a regulation on tracking and reducing methane emissions in the energy sector.

This agreement is a great achievement in the framework of the ´Fit for 55´ package. The text represents a crucial contribution to climate action as methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, second only to carbon dioxide in its overall contribution to climate change and responsible for a third of current climate warming. Reducing methane emissions will help us to achieve EU´s climate goals.

— Teresa Ribera Rodríguez, acting Spanish third vice-president of the government and minister for the ecological transition and the demographic challenge

The regulation introduces new requirements for the oil, gas and coal sectors to measure, report and verify methane emissions, as well as put in place mitigation measures to avoid such emissions, including detecting and repairing methane leaks and limiting venting and flaring. It also puts forward global monitoring tools to ensure transparency on methane emissions from imports of oil, gas and coal into the EU.