Baku, 15 November 2024
“Check against delivery”
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I’m delighted to be opening this year’s Global Methane Pledge Ministerial.
It is difficult to believe that the Global Methane Pledge was only launched three years ago at COP26.
So much has already been done: the Global Methane Pledge has truly been a catalyst for action, and I would like to thank all of our partners for making this global momentum possible.
We have had more and more countries endorsing the pledge, and more and more regulations as well as national action roadmaps have been adopted around the world.
We have also seen increasingly ambitious commitments being made at every COP since the Global Methane Pledge launch.
But we have also seen that our efforts so far are not sufficient.
Estimates of the Global Methane Tracker 2024 show that the world is not on track to meet the targets of the Global Methane Pledge.
We have 6 years left to turn our commitments into action. Today offers the chance to come together and reaffirm our dedication for the way forward.
Let me now turn to what the EU will do to take this agenda forward:
The EU took another ambitious step this year to implement our Global Methane Pledge targets with the recently adopted EU Methane Regulation.
We are the first in the world to also regulate methane emissions from imports.
This law entered into force last August.
With this, we are addressing both the opportunity and responsibility as the largest fossil fuel importer. We are setting requirements and transparency tools to ensure accurate and transparent information guides fossil fuel purchasing decisions in the coming years as we transition away from them.
To advance our agenda of shaping the global market, it is essential to align with other major importers on data collection and transparency .
Together, we can further incentivise methane abatement action by both countries and companies.
A good example is our strong cooperation with Japan, as highlighted in the launch of our “LNG importers’ initiative alliance for methane mitigation from the LNG value chain” at LNG Producer-Consumer Conference this year.
However, importer-exporter coordination is just as essential.
In this context, the European Commission has just launched the ‘Methane Abatement Partnership’ Roadmap – with the support of countries, such as the US and Japan, and key organisations, such as the IEA and OECD.
It provides a globally adaptable, step-by-step blueprint for the implementation of importer-exporter partnerships that aim to curb methane emissions globally.
On data transparency and accountability, I am also delighted to hear that civil society organisations are mobilising across Europe to launch the “European Civil Society Observatory on Methane Emissions”, an essential mechanism to monitor and advocate for methane emissions reductions.
It is crucial to provide a critical avenue for civil society to demand methane abatement from both policymakers and industry.
The EU has also further strengthened waste related legislation, which is expected to significantly reduce methane emissions. This builds on the 37% reductions already achieved since 1990.
The measures include obligations to collect biodegradable waste separately from 2024, a new 10% maximum landfilling target by 2035, and an energy neutrality target by 2045 of urban wastewater treatment plans in towns with over 10,000 inhabitants.
The last energy neutrality goal alone will slash emissions by around 3.4 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2045.
On agriculture, the EU has also taken new steps to protect public health and the environment by reducing harmful industrial and intensive livestock emissions across the EU with the revised rules on Industrial and Livestock Rearing Emissions.
The legislation now covers additional large-scale pig and poultry farms. It also asks for an assessment, by the end of 2026, of emissions coming from rearing livestock, particularly cattle, within the Union.
Finally, to finance our way forward with the Global Methane Pledge, the European Commission has committed an additional EUR 106 million for actions with partner countries with high potential for methane emission abatement.
This includes EUR 15.1 million for the Core Implementing Partners of the Global Methane Pledge and EUR 55 million under the ‘Horizon Europe’ research and innovation fund.
As mentioned earlier, we have 6 years left to turn our commitments into action. None of us will be able to do this on our own, but we need our partnership under the Global Methane Pledge to succeed.
The international community needs to keep the political momentum and continue advancing initiatives, such as those announced today.
Reaching our targets will only be possible together.
Source – EU Commission