Last April, the European Parliament met to move forward a new provisional political agreement to lay the foundations for a law that limits methane emissions produced by the energy sector.
Its scope of application will cover, especially, direct emissions that come from petroleum, fossil gases, coal or biomethane industries.
From 2027In addition, this law will also affect the gas, coal and oil imports.
With 530 votes in favor, 63 against and 28 abstentionsthis is the first regulation discussed by the European Parliament that addresses pollution by this element, considered the second most important greenhouse gas and a powerful pollutant of air quality.
So much so that up to a third of current global warming It is due to methane emissions that occur in various sectors ranging from agriculture to energy, responsible respectively for 53% and 19% of methane emissions originating from one of the EU countries.
Progress in the European Green Deal
Jutta Paulus of the European Green Party, has celebrated this action, since “the reduction of methane emissions not only benefits the climate, it will also serve to improve air quality and reinforce energy sovereignty in the EU. Including imports will also have an impact throughout the world.”
For its part, Pascal Canfin of Renew Europehas declared that this will be “an advance in the Green Deal to respect our international commitments.”
In this way, the Twenty-seven are assigned to the fulfillment of the Global Methane Commitmentwhich aims to reduce global emissions of this gas by at least 30% compared to 2020, before the end of this decade.
With this brand, the Union hopes to be able to contribute to reduce global temperature warmingavoiding a rise of more than 0.2 degrees Celsius between now and 2050.