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BRUSSELS — The European Parliament on Tuesday voted for stricter measures to reduce emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, dodging a last-minute rebellion.
The legislation, proposed by the European Commission in December 2021, applies only to the energy sector, responsible for about a fifth of the bloc’s methane emissions.
Lawmakers defeated an effort by a clutch of conservative MEPs to weaken the Parliament’s stance.
A comfortable majority — 499 in favor, 79 against and 55 abstentions — backed a compromise text amending the Commission’s proposal with tighter rules for monitoring emissions, as well as more stringent leak detection and repair (LDAR) requirements to tackle leaky fossil fuel infrastructure.
The Parliament also asked the Commission to come up with a framework to ensure exporting countries have to abide by similar rules.
The regulation is a crucial part of Europe’s climate efforts: Swift action is key to reining in the warming effect of methane, which is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.
Brussels also faces particular scrutiny regarding methane, as it has cast itself as a leader on the issue — co-founding the Global Methane Pledge in 2021 to slash worldwide emissions of the gas by at least 30 percent this decade.
For now, the EU lags behind.
This bill will be the bloc’s first legislation, while countries such as Canada, the United States or Nigeria already have frameworks in place. Companies in the U.S., the other Global Methane Pledge founder, will have to pay for excessive methane emissions from next year, for example.
Legislative drama
The Parliament’s more ambitious stance sets the stage for difficult negotiations with EU governments, which in December agreed to water down the Commission’s proposal and disregarded green groups’ demands for rules covering imports.
The methane bill has already seen its fair share of drama. The two lawmakers jointly responsible for drafting the Parliament’s position — German Greens MEP Jutta Paulus and far-right Italian MEP Silvia Sardone — held opposing views, resulting in lengthy delays.
Sardone then quit as rapporteur last month following the approval of the compromise text in committee, citing the alleged influence of NGOs on Paulus’ work.
In February, POLITICO reported that the Microsoft Word file containing the compromise text was created not by Paulus, but by an employee of NGO Clean Air Task Force, which campaigns for stricter methane regulation. Paulus, however, denied that the NGO wrote any legislative texts on her behalf.
The committee compromise — backed by all factions except Sardone’s Identity and Democracy group and, in some cases, The Left — faced a final challenge this week.
A coalition of mostly conservative lawmakers, led by European People’s Party rebels, sought to weaken the proposed measures with amendments introducing loopholes and diluting LDAR requirements. But the EPP as a group decided not to back the changes, and the revolt failed.
Targeting leaks and imports
In its now approved text, the Parliament wants companies to carry out regular LDAR work. Companies operating fossil fuel infrastructure such as pipelines would be required to check for leaks as often as every two months, rather than every three months as proposed by the Commission or every six to 12 months as proposed by the EPP rebels.
Another key change — a rare decision by the Parliament to weaken the measures — is to relax rules on coal mine emissions following protests from Poland.
German center-left MEP Jens Geier told reporters Monday in a joint press conference with lead lawmaker Paulus that the decision was taken in order not to “undermine” a hard-won coal exit agreement in Poland’s Silesia region.
But Paulus said the Parliament’s most significant change is extending the rules to imports of oil and gas, which account for more than 90 percent of the bloc’s consumption of those fossil fuels.
“We’re saying that from 2026, those importing into the EU have to prove that they are adhering to these requirements,” she said. “That’s why this regulation also has the potential to reduce emissions worldwide.”
Targeting the energy sector is relatively cheap and easy compared to tackling agriculture — which is responsible for more than half of EU methane emissions — or waste, responsible for about a quarter.
Brussels is taking first steps to address the politically sensitive issue of agricultural methane in its revamp of the Industrial Emissions Directive, which has already seen significant pushback from EU governments and lawmakers in the agriculture committee.
No proposal to address waste emissions has been made so far.
