Methane emissions are a powerful short term climate change driver, and their reduction is a high priority. By developing recommendations to the Commonwealth Government, the Climate Change Authority (CCA) are working to enable a 30% methane reduction by 2030, in line with the Global Methane pledge.
Our response to the CCA’s Fossil Methane: A near-term abatement opportunity Consultation Paper supports this important work, with some additional key recommendations including:
- adding recommendations related to the reduction of emissions in domestic gas networks as they are relatively ‘low hanging fruit’;
- Improving information gathering from gas network companies, and regulators including the AER on emissions reduction pledges, and the best way to improve the detection and management of methane leaks, and;
- recommending that the Commonwealth Government help coordinate state governments, networks and regulators in identifying and addressing fossil methane leaks from gas networks.
What’s next?
This process will help the CCA identify practical actions to increase methane reductions in the near term. It will deliver its recommendations to the Commonwealth Government to implement. This process is part of a range of overlapping processes where we are focussing on accelerating near-term emissions reductions to ensure we remain within our committed emissions budgets. Read more in our Emissions Budgets Explainer.
