Businesses urged to commit to reducing methane leak at Baku Climate Action Week

Baku Climate Action Week highlighted the need for cleaner natural gas as NGOs push for reduced methane emissions from oil companies before COP29.

Transcript

00:00Methane is causing this warming.

00:03Academics and businesses talked about the need to make natural gas cleaner at the Baku

00:09Climate Action Week Summit ahead of COP29.

00:13NGOs are calling on oil and gas companies to limit methane emissions and for countries

00:18to require importers to commit to do so.

00:22Methane is one of the largest contributors to global warming and contributes to air pollution

00:28around the world.

00:29A not-for-profit focused on climate change says it is independently gathering data to

00:34identify how much methane is being leaked by companies, allowing it to see whether they

00:40are sticking to their promises to decrease emissions.

00:44One environmental scientist said decreasing methane emissions could help combat increased

00:49storm intensity and floods due to climate change.

00:53He said there needs to be more public demand and government pressure for more companies

00:59to make such commitments against emissions.

01:02There are many tools and we're seeing increasing efforts by countries that import gas to require

01:09that the sources of their imports come from places that have very low methane emissions

01:15as well as with countries having regulations requiring limited emissions.

01:20This is really the low-hanging fruit.

01:22The industry knows how to produce gas with very little associated methane emissions.

01:26The International Energy Agency says the energy sector is responsible for more than one-third

01:32of methane emissions from human activity.

01:35It estimates the production and use of fossil fuels led to nearly 120 million tons of methane

01:41emissions last year.

01:46A roundtable discussion at the week-long meeting looked at financial opportunities in the green

01:51sector.

01:52Baku's top goal for COP29 is ensuring more financing for countries to decrease greenhouse

01:59gas emissions, calling the summit a litmus test for the Paris Agreement, an international

02:05treaty on climate change.

02:06A leading representative of Azerbaijan's COP29 presidency says the country's role at the

02:12summit is as a mediator.

02:14This is when we expect the finance goal to be achieved, to have consensus on finance

02:20between the parties.

02:21And I commend Azerbaijan as the incoming presidency.