The Federal government has appointed chief scientist, Cathy Foley, to lead an expert panel to ensure the reporting of methane and other greenhouse gases is accurate and transparent.
Earlier today the government released its response to the recommendations of the 2023 review of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) scheme conducted by the independent Climate Change Authority (CCA).
This review had a particular focus on the integrity of methane measurement following a written request by the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen last year.
The CCA found the NGER scheme is “performing well and continues to be integral to meeting Australia’s international energy and emissions reporting obligations”, supporting Australia’s net zero transformation and Safeguard Mechanism.
The CCA made 25 recommendations for the NGER scheme, including adjustments to data transparency, coverage, methane emissions measurement, reporting and verification and administration.
The government has agreed in full or agreed in principle to 24 of the CCA’s NGER Scheme recommendations and noted 1 recommendation.
This includes the CCA’s recommendation to establish an expert panel to advise the government on the potential role atmospheric measurement approaches could play in further enhancing Australia’s fossil methane emissions estimation.
The panel’s work will be informed by a scientific study to be commissioned by the government to test the capability of a range of atmospheric measurement approaches.
The study’s design will draw on the findings from an ongoing integrated atmospheric measurement study commissioned by the government that is testing satellite, plane, vehicle and ground-based approaches in an operational open-cut mine setting.
As part of the 2024 annual improvements to the NGER scheme made in June, the government has already implemented improvements consistent with the CCA’s recommendations. These include
- introduce market-based reporting arrangements for renewable liquid fuels in the NGER Measurement Determination from 1 July 2024;
- phase out the use of Method 1 for the estimation of fugitive emissions from the extraction of coal from open cut coal mines covered by the Safeguard Mechanism (this captures the vast majority of relevant fugitive emissions);
- introduce an additional Method 2 for the estimation of fugitive emissions from natural gas flaring activities; and
- incentivise on-site abatement through refinements to the existing Method 2 for the estimation of fugitive methane emissions from produced formation water arising from oil and gas sector activities.
The Minister for Climate Change & Energy, Chris Bowen, said methane is among the world’s most powerful greenhouse gases.
“It is essential that our measurement approaches continue to improve, based on sound science and expert analysis, as technologies provide additional opportunities for increased accuracy and integrity consistent with Paris Agreement emission reporting rules,” Bowen said.
Climate advocacy group, Healthy Futures, said the government has taken an important step towards improving the integrity of Australia's emissions reporting by creating an expert panel to advise on fixing under-reporting methane pollution and “removing outdated estimate-based methods for calculating methane emissions.”
Campaign manager at Healthy Futures, Bronwyn McDonald, said this is a crucial first step but the government needs to go even further by implementing a national methane target and methane action plan.
“We also have serious concerns about the ongoing approvals for new coal and gas projects, especially when considering the likely extent of under-reporting of methane pollution from mining,” McDonald said.