EU Imports of Methane-Heavy Russian Gas Undermine Climate Goals Finds New Report from PPI; New EU Methane Regs are Needed

December 8, 2021

Report Finds Opportunity for Lower-Methane U.S. LNG to Gain Market Share in EU and Globally While Reducing Emissions and Cutting Kremlin Revenue

A new report authored by the Progressive Policy Institute’s Paul Bledsoe finds that the European Union’s huge reliance on high-methane emitting Russian gas undermines the EU’s climate goals. The report, entitled “The Role of Natural Gas in Limiting European Union Emissions: Key Opportunities to Cut Methane, Coal and CO2,” also has major implications for U.S. and global climate policy. Cutting methane from gas, first in the EU and U.S., then globally, can greatly reduce near-term emissions, speeding up the phase out of coal in the EU and Asia, and providing new market share for lower-methane U.S. liquefied natural gas exports. This report is the first of four reports on the role of natural gas in reducing emissions.

“Due to massive methane leaks in its production system, Russian gas is worse than coal for the climate, yet Europe, the world’s largest gas importer, gets 25% of its total gas supply from Russia right now. To meet climate goals, the EU must adopt regulations to require low methane gas, including from imports. This can provide a new opportunity for U.S. LNG exports to Europe to outcompete Russia on lower emissions, as strict U.S. methane regulations and the gas industry rapidly reduce methane from U.S. gas production,” said Paul Bledsoe, Strategic Adviser for the Progressive Policy Institute. “Russia also continues to use its gas as a geopolitical weapon against Europe, threatening Ukraine with impunity and handing Putin and Gazprom record profits because of the EU addiction to the Kremlin’s gas. The U.S. and EU each have strong climate and geopolitical incentives to limit natural gas emissions and Russia’s malign policies by displacing Russian gas with both cleaner gas and renewable energy.”

The dominance of Russia in the European gas market is troubling — with Russia providing nearly half of total EU gas imports in 2020. This Russian natural gas has extremely high rates of fugitive emissions of methane, a super-potent greenhouse gas, and is a leading factor in Russia being by far the world’s largest methane emitter.

However, new sources of gas, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from the United States and other clean sources, can reduce the EU’s reliance on Russian gas. The United States has long had better methane and carbon dioxide reporting standards and measurements than other gas exporters, leading the world in both methane science and efforts to reduce methane emissions. And importantly, the Biden Administration, Congress, and the U.S. natural gas industry are beginning to undertake a series of strategic steps to make U.S. gas super-low emitting compared to gas from Russia and other major exporters.

PPI’s report calls for an international effort to accurately verify and monitor methane emissions from domestic and imported gas and then regulate emissions to as close to zero as possible. These actions, if taken together, could play a major role in reducing greenhouse as global emissions as renewable energy grows.

Select key recommendations from the report include:

The EU should put in place rigorous monitoring, reporting and verification rules covering all natural gas, both domestically produced and imported.
Over the next few years, the EU should require gas exporters to accurately verify lifecycle emissions of methane as a condition for gaining access to the EU market.
The EU and United States should harmonize their monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) regimes of lifecycle emissions from natural gas as a key interim step in this process. This step is crucial in setting a global benchmark for MRV emissions from gas.
The EU should consider adopting stringent methane emissions regulations for domestically produced natural gas immediately, and then extend these requirements to imported gas at the earliest opportunity.
The EU should seek to diversify and expand its natural gas importation sources both to reduce gas prices to phase out coal and to pressure importers of all types to begin to cut its lifecycle methane and carbon emissions.
The United States should accelerate its already significant measures to drive down U.S. methane emissions from natural gas production and transportation.
The EU should measure precisely the extent to which Russian gas with high fugitive methane emissions is undermining progress toward both EU and global climate change goals. Specifically, Brussels should study potential emissions from gas transported through the Nord Stream 2 pipeline before allowing the pipeline to become operational.
Over time, the EU should require all natural gas used in the EU achieve super-low methane and CO2 emissions, as gas will be needed to displace coal in the EU to meet climate goals.
Increasing low-emitting U.S. liquefied natural gas imports to the EU can play a key role in this process, and should be a domestic and international climate change policy priority for both the EU and U.S.
The EU should prioritize LNG port construction, access, and related infrastructure to spur a competition toward super-low emitting gas, and to displace Russian gas.
The EU can advance its own energy and security interests, as well as its climate goals, by acting on its stated policy of reducing its dependence on Russia gas, cutting imports by at least half during the current decade.

Read the full report:

Paul Bledsoe is a strategic adviser at the Progressive Policy Institute and a professorial lecturer at American University’s Center for Environmental Policy. He served on the White House Climate Change Task Force under President Clinton, at the U.S. Department of the Interior, as a staff member at the Senate Finance Committee and for several members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Read his full biography here.

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in Washington, D.C., with offices in Brussels and Berlin. Its mission is to create radically pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. Learn more about PPI by visiting progressivepolicy.org.

Follow the Progressive Policy Institute.

###