Climate progress between China and the US could depend on a new agreement on methane

BEIJING, July 17 (Reuters) – This week’s report visit by US climate envoy John Kerry to China after years of diplomatic interruptions could boost cooperation between the world’s two biggest carbon polluters on the key issue of methane emissions.

Kerry arrived in Beijing on Sunday for talks aimed at reviving efforts by China and the United States to curb emissions that contribute to global warming. Experts have said that any move to cooperate on methane, a greenhouse gas responsible for about 30% of global warming, could provide a way forward.

“Methane is particularly important to our cooperation,” Kerry said at a congressional hearing on Thursday in Washington. “China agreed to have a methane action plan from our previous talks in Glasgow (in 2021) and again in Sharm el-Sheikh” in November.

During those COP27 climate talks last year in Egypt, China’s top climate envoy Xie Zhenhua made an unexpected appearance at a meeting of the Global Methane Partnership, a US-led initiative, late this decade.

Xie said China had drawn up a plan with concrete measures to curb methane emissions from energy, agriculture and waste. China has yet to make the plan public.

Sources in contact with Kerry’s team said the United States hoped China would unveil the plan before the upcoming UN climate conference, COP28, in Dubai in December.

“It’s the opening salvo to be able to sit down and have more serious discussions about methane in China,” said Jonathan Banks, global director for methane prevention at the global research and advocacy nonprofit Clean Air Task Force (CATF). ).

China aims to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve net-zero CO2 emissions by 2060. But it has yet to set targets for methane and other non-CO2 greenhouse gases, and is still working on how to measure them accurately. .

President Joe Biden’s administration aims to decarbonize the US economy by 2050. The Cut Inflation Act of 2022 imposes tariffs on methane emissions from the oil and gas industry beginning in 2024, and the Biden administration has proposed a rule to crack down on pollution. including a “super emitter” program that requires operators to respond to reports from environmentalists and others about large methane leaks.

Xie acknowledged last year that China’s ability to monitor methane remains “weak” as the country was focusing first on its monitoring efforts.

An April report by the Beijing-based think tank Innovative Green Development Program suggested China’s rising methane levels were putting its non-CO2 climate emissions on track to rise 50% from 2015 levels by mid-century. This would make carbon neutrality impossible, since methane is a carbon-based gas, according to the report.

However, reforms in China’s industrial and agricultural sectors could deliver methane reductions of 30-40% from 2015 levels by the end of the decade, a study published in August by scientists at California’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

“There can be a bit of a reluctance to commit to something without a better idea of ​​what they’re putting out,” Banks said. “But that in itself could be a commitment that they can make to improve data quality for the sector.”

COAL GAS

Two big sources of methane emissions growth in China are cattle ranching and rice production, neither of which are included in the country’s climate plans. The agriculture ministry last year recommended new farming practices, such as rice paddy irrigation management and low-protein diets for livestock, as ways to reduce methane.

Landfills are also a growing concern. But China’s huge coal sector could prove the biggest challenge.

China is the world’s largest source of methane from coal mines, with 28% of the world’s largest methane emission hotspots, according to Antoine Halff, co-founder of environmental research group Karryos.

While China has been capturing some of that gas for use in its energy sector for more than a decade, it would have to do more to have an impact on global emissions, Halff said.

Coal-producing province Shanxi, the only region to have developed a coalbed methane industry, said last week it would increase coalbed methane use rates to 50 percent by 2025. However, many mines Chinese are in remote locations with no infrastructure to collect methane. .

Experts expected China to address coal mine emissions in its methane action plan.

“When you look at coal mine methane sources around the world, China is three to four times larger than the next country’s coal mine methane emissions,” Banks said.

One area with immediate potential for Sino-US cooperation could be methane measurement, and Chinese companies are already working with the Boston-based Clean Air Task Force to account for emissions.

“This is a great opportunity for the United States to work with China,” Banks said.

Reporting by Valerie Volcovici in Beijing and David Stanway in Singapore; Additional reporting by Dominique Patton in Beijing and Timothy Gardner in Washington; Edited by Katy Daigle and Will Dunham

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