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International Partners Reduce Methane Greenhouse Gas Emissions

By Cheryl Pellerin

A new report from an international public-private partnership formed in 2004 to reduce industrial and agricultural emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane details the success of U.S.-supported projects among partnership accomplishments.

According to the third annual report, The U.S. Government's Methane to Markets Partnership Accomplishments, released December 1, such projects, when fully implemented, will reduce annual methane emissions by a level equal to 24 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

The report was developed jointly by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); the departments of State, Energy and Agriculture; the U.S. Agency for International Development; and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency.

"The emission reductions that are associated with the partnership and the number of partner countries and public- and private-sector organizations that participate in Methane to Markets continues to grow," Paul Gunning, a branch chief in EPA's Climate Change Division, told America.gov. "We now have 27 partner countries and about 800 public- and private-sector organizations in our project network."

The public-private partnership, which began four years ago with 14 countries, focuses on using available, cost-effective technologies for capturing and using methane as a fuel, and on identifying and addressing financial, institutional and regulatory barriers.

To date, the United States has provided $28.5 million for a range of projects; attracted more than $271 million in private- and public-sector contributions; and initiated direct-assistance agreements for projects to recover and use methane in Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Mongolia, Nigeria, Philippines, Poland, Russia and Ukraine.

ON THE GROUND

Methane is a clean-burning fuel that is the main component of natural gas and an important energy source. Methane is more than 20 times more effective than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, and it accounts for 16 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions from human sources.

According to EPA, reducing methane emissions is one of the most cost-effective ways to realize immediate environmental benefits because of methane's potency as a greenhouse gas and the number of reduction options.

Since 2004, the partnership has tracked the development of more than 140 methane-emission-reduction projects in partner countries, held 41 technical and other events in 13 countries, developed an array of computer-based tools and information services, and organized the first Partnership Expo in Beijing in 2007, which brought together more than 700 members of the international methane community.

In India, EPA launched a partnership with that nation's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). In September, the ONGC chairman directed his managers to implement cost-effective practices that could reduce ONGC methane emissions by an estimated 10 million cubic meters per year.

The declaration was the direct result of a yearlong EPA-ONGC collaboration in which EPA supported measurement of major emission sources that could be paired with established mitigation methods. ONGC plans to form an internal measurement team to institutionalize the leak-evaluation strategies.

DETERMINING POTENTIAL

Pre-feasibility and feasibility studies are key project-development steps. Pre-feasibility studies help developers determine whether a project can succeed. Feasibility studies give developers information about costs, challenges and results.

In China in 2007, EPA launched initiatives to work with coal mines by conducting three full-scale feasibility studies at the Liuzhuang mine in Anhui province, a group of six mines in the Songzao coal basin in Chongqing, and six mines in the Hebi region of Henan province. EPA also funded a feasibility study for a new technology that mitigates diluted methane from coal mine ventilation shafts at the Tiefa mine in Liaoning province.

In Nigeria, EPA supported a pre-feasibility study at the Okpara mine, where mining is expected to start again in 2010 after several years of inactivity. The mine has the potential to produce up to 363,000 metric tons of coal per year.

With the World Bank, EPA has supported livestock waste-management projects in Southeast Asia since 2004. The World Bank provided $21 million to develop affordable pollution-control methods for livestock waste management in China, Thailand and Vietnam, and EPA provided technical assistance needed to implement the projects.

MOVING FORWARD

In October, EPA announced it was funding, through the Methane to Markets Partnership, 20 projects that would help 12 countries increase their capture and use of methane from the landfill, coal, agriculture, and oil and natural gas sectors. The projects will receive more than $4.5 million in grants from EPA.

In December 2008 and January 2009, Gunning said, EPA will solicit proposals for another round of grants that will total up to $7 million for projects in developing countries or countries with economies in transition.

The next major meeting of partnership members will be held January 27-29, 2009, at the Centro Internacional de Negocios Monterrey in Mexico, hosted by the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources) and the state government of Nuevo Leon.

Ashley King, co-director of the Methane to Markets administrative support group, told America.gov the meeting will include tours of active projects in all four sectors and technical workshops in all sectors. The steering committee will meet January 27-28, 2009, and the technical subcommittees will meet January 29, 2009.

In late 2009 or early 2010, Gunning said, a report will be available that details the efforts of all Methane to Markets participating countries.

More information about Methane to Markets ( http://www.methanetomarkets.org/index.htm) is available at the organization's Web site.

The full text of the U.S. Government Accomplishments in Support of the Methane to Markets Partnership ( http://www.epa.gov/methanetomarkets/pdf/2008-accomplish-report/m2m08_usg_report_08_scrnrez.pdf) report (PDF, 3 megabytes) is available at the EPA Web site.

Source: U.S. Department of State