The future must be powered by 100% clean energy – but we need to reduce the climate impact of methane emissions from oil and gas until we get there. That’s the mission of MiQ: an independent, not-for-profit partnership between Rocky Mountain Institute and SYSTEMIQ.
Many of the tools and methods needed to substantially reduce methane emissions in the oil and gas industry already exist. RMI and SYSTEMIQ have a designed a certification system which, adopted at scale, will create a differentiated market for natural gas for buyers and sellers. This system will create the pricing signals for the sector to invest in abatement technology enabling the significant methane reductions necessary to support global climate targets.
“Methane emissions from the oil and gas sector have the equivalent climate impact of the world’s on-road transport fleet”, explains SYSTEMIQ’s Marco van Veen. “We’ve partnered with RMI to develop MiQ, a certification system that brings transparency and accountability to quickly address the urgent issue of methane abatement in natural gas production.”
MiQ Certification will be assessed against the MiQ Standard. The Standard goes beyond simple emission factors, to bring rigour across three metrics for methane emissions management in an independent and third-party audited system. The Standard is compatible with existing voluntary schemes as well as regulatory frameworks, and will evolve as technologies, best practices and regulations improve.
The MiQ Certification is designed to bring critically additional transparency and accountability to methane emissions management. It will require oil and gas producers to: disclose their methane emissions intensity at a facility level; deploy methane monitoring technology; and implement company practices that prioritise emissions abatement.
Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is a much more powerful climate pollutant than CO2 when it is leaked into the atmosphere, but only persists for about a decade. This makes it a critical and opportune target for climate change mitigation in the short term.
Until sustainable alternatives to natural gas are available at scale and our energy infrastructure is redesigned away from fossil fuels, we need to ensure that the gas we do use has a minimal climate impact, especially in terms of its methane emissions footprint. It is vital that we dramatically and urgently reduce methane emissions in the oil and gas sector to make the transition as clean as possible.
Find out how it works here.
