Syllabus

GS 3: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

Context: 

The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Global Methane Tracker 2025 report highlighted that the energy sector contributed around 145 million tonnes (Mt) of methane emissions in 2024.

Key Highlights of the Report

• Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, contributing to about 30% of the rise in global temperatures since the Industrial Revolution.
• Current atmospheric methane concentrations are 2.5 times higher than in the pre-industrial era.

The three main sources of methane emissions are: 

• Agriculture
• Energy
• Waste

• The energy sector (oil, natural gas, coal, and bioenergy) accounts for more than 35% of methane emissions from human activity.

• Oil and gas facilities were responsible for over 80 million tonnes (Mt) of methane emissions in 2024.

• Reducing methane emissions could unlock nearly 100 billion cubic metres of natural gas for markets.

• Approximately 70% of methane emissions from the fossil fuel sector could be avoided using existing, low-cost technologies. 

• Deploying targeted methane mitigation solutions in the fossil fuel sector would prevent a roughly 0.1°C rise in global temperatures by 2050, as per the IEA report. 

• To slash 75 per cent of methane emissions from the oil and gas sector as well as the coal sector, a funding of $175 billion and $85 billion, respectively, would be needed.

Methane Emissions in the Energy Sector

• The energy sector is one of the largest contributor to global methane emissions, accounting for 41% of the total.

Breakdown of emissions within the energy sector in 2024:

• Oil operations: ~45 Mt
• Natural gas operations: ~35 Mt
• Abandoned wells: ~3 Mt

Coal operations: >40 Mt

• From abandoned coal mines: >4 Mt
• From end-use equipment: ~1 Mt

Bioenergy: 20 Mt total

• From incomplete combustion (traditional use of biomass): ~18 Mt
• From modern bioenergy production: ~2 Mt

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates:

• Around 8 million abandoned onshore oil and gas wells exist globally.
• A large number of abandoned coal mines also contribute to emissions. 
• Both sources, if added, would be the world’s fourth-largest emitter of fossil fuel methane.

International Energy Agency (IEA)

• The IEA is an autonomous forum established in 1974 by member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 
• Headquarters: Paris, France
• The primary objective of the International Energy Agency (IEA) is to ensure reliable, affordable, and clean energy for its member countries and beyond.
• Since 1993, (IEA) has provided medium- to long-term energy projections using a large-scale simulation model designed to replicate how energy markets function and generate detailed sector-by-sector and region-by-region projections for the World Energy Outlook (WEO) scenarios.

UPSC Mains Practice Question

Q. Discuss the major sources and mitigation potential of methane emissions in the energy sector? How does India aims to tackle the same.