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