INTRODUCTION

The momentum on methane reduction is picking up as governments and private sectors acknowledge its crucial role in meeting the Paris Agreement goals. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has called for fossil fuel methane emissions to be cut by 75 per cent by 2030 to keep the 1.5-degree goal in sight. Compared to carbon dioxide, methane (the second most abundant greenhouse gas) has a much stronger impact on warming temperatures. Within a 100-year time horizon, a tonne of methane in the atmosphere could cause about twenty-five times the warming as the same amount of carbon dioxide. So far, methane has accounted for about 30 per cent of global temperature rise since the Industrial Revolution.

Methane is emitted in a wide variety of human activities, especially in the agricultural, energy and waste sectors. 40 per cent of anthropogenic methane emissions are traced to the energy sector, including coal mining as well as multiple stages in the oil and gas supply chain. Fossil fuel production and usage contributed 118 Mt of global methane emissions (equivalent to 2,950 MtCO2e of emissions) in 2023. Methane emissions in the coal sector come from leakages in coal mines, while emissions in the oil and gas sector mostly come from leakages or routine flaring (burning) and venting of gases. Besides being the second-largest contributing sector to methane emissions, around 40 per cent of annual fossil fuel methane emissions can be avoided using current technologies at no net cost, giving it considerable methane abatement potential compared to other sectors like waste or agriculture. This has led some to describe methane abatement in the energy sector as a “low-hanging fruit” for climate action.

In Southeast Asia, the agriculture sector contributed the largest share of methane emissions (over 51 per cent) followed by the waste sector (25 per cent) and fugitive emissions from the coal mining, oil and gas sectors (18 per cent) in 219. Fugitive emissions make up a significant share of emissions for Brunei (88 per cent), Malaysia (31 per cent), Indonesia (25 per cent) and Singapore (23 per cent). While accounting for a smaller portion of Vietnam's (15 per cent) and Thailand's (16 per cent) overall methane emissions, they still amount to large quantities. For instance, Vietnam emitted 80.9 MtCO2e of methane overall, of which 48.1 MtCO2e were fugitive emissions—similar to that of Malaysia. As such, methane is an area of concern for all six countries.