As energy prices remain high across the UK, oil and gas companies are wasting precious resources by burning and releasing methane into the atmosphere. In the North Sea alone, enough gas to supply more than 700,000 average UK homes is lost annually.
Methane is a powerful climate‑warming gas. It is more than 80 times stronger than carbon dioxide in heating the planet, and its release leads to other pollutants that harm public health. This means the threat that wasteful practices, such as venting and flaring, have on our livelihoods goes far beyond monetary costs.
Methane emerged as a priority at Cop26 in Glasgow in 2021. The government supported the creation of the global methane pledge, a commitment to collectively reduce emissions by at least 30% by 2030.
The North Sea Transition Authority has made strong progress to reduce flaring over the last six years. However, the UK still flares more than five times as much methane gas as Norway, despite producing roughly half as much oil.
With the UK in jeopardy of falling behind on the pledge it helped create at Cop26, an amendment to the energy bill would help to rein in this harmful gas. Banning routine flaring and venting of gas by 2025 and introducing additional measures to capture gas lost to leaky pipes could reduce up to 80% of methane emissions from the oil and gas sector in the UK, according to the International Energy Agency.
Banning routine flaring and venting by 2025 is one of 25 key recommendations of the net zero review, Mission Zero, published earlier this year. Let us stop throwing our energy away and get smart about protecting our bills, our health and our future.
Wera Hobhouse MP Liberal Democrat, Alan Brown MP SNP, Caroline Lucas MP Green party, Olivia Blake MP Labour, Rebecca Tremain Head of UK government affairs, Clean Air Task Force
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