Debate: An EU strategy to reduce methane emissions
Date: WEDNESDAY, 20 OCTOBER 2021
Speaker: Kadri Simson
Language: EN

As concerns energy, many of you mentioned this. Many of the issues mentioned, and also included in the report, such as the call to establish binding rules on the measuring, reporting and verification of methane emissions and mandatory leak detection and repair, are planned to be covered in our December legislative proposal. At this very moment, with the high energy prices, I think that it is also important to note that the higher the gas prices, the higher the cost—effectiveness of the measures to mitigate methane emissions is, because methane should be used as a natural product rather than escaping to the atmosphere. On the international side, the International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) will provide reliable data on methane emissions and will therefore represent a powerful tool to drive global action to reduce global methane emissions. The Global Methane Pledge, as a joint EU—US initiative, represents a strong outcome of our renewed transatlantic agenda to continue and strengthen our cooperation on climate change and decarbonisation of energy. It includes a commitment to move towards using the best available inventory methodologies to quantify methane emissions, with a particular focus on high emission sources. As concerns the environmental legislation, we are reviewing the Industrial Emissions Directive, the Sewage Sludge Directive, the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive and the Landfill Directive. Although it is too early to go into more details, I hope that, during the review process, we will be able to address most of the issues mentioned in the report. As concerns agriculture, the current common agricultural policy is supporting mitigation actions for methane reduction in the livestock sector, mainly through the Pillar II rural development programming. This includes investments for the modernisation of animal housing, the creation of local innovation groups with farmers and specific thematic focus groups of the European Innovation Partnership on methane emission reduction and carbon sequestration in grasslands. The EU soil strategy also has the potential to become a milestone in EU policies related to a healthy environment in the long run. The legislative ecosystem represented by the Green Deal will, directly and indirectly, affect millions of lives and jobs in all sectors, and the Commission is particularly careful to ensure a fair and just green transition for all, especially vulnerable groups in the energy, agri—food and other sectors. In the post-2020 CAP, Member States will have the possibility to design a specific combination of interventions, reducing emissions from agriculture. Still, rural development programmes will be the main tool for supporting investment, innovation, and knowledge transfer advisory services. Finally, as already mentioned, the Commission is encouraging Member States to include methane reduction schemes in their strategic plans for the CAP. Thank you for bringing to my attention many important issues concerning the reduction of methane emissions in your interventions today and, of course, in the report. I am pleased to see that our level of ambition in reducing methane emissions is very much aligned. Therefore, I am looking forward to continue working on this topic with Parliament.