China has unveiled a plan to control methane emissions, an important step towards meeting its climate commitments ahead of the UN Cop 28 climate summit which starts at the end of November.
Methane is the second-biggest contributor to global warming after CO2. As China is the world's largest emitter of methane from fossil fuel operations, it is facing pressure to curb its methane emissions.
Methane emissions control still faces the problems of weak data collection, insufficient regulatory standards, and technical and management problems, according to China's latest methane plan, released by ecology and environment ministry. It calls for the "acceleration of the formation of a methane emissions supervision system to effectively control methane emissions."
The plan was first announced but without details by China's climate envoy Xie Zhenhua at the sidelines of last year's Cop in Egypt, where he conceded data monitoring problems plagued efforts to control methane emissions.
China aims to improve methane emissions control from now through 2025 and significantly improve from 2026-2030, according to the plan. The country aims to gradually establish methane emissions control policies, and create standardized technological systems by 2025. Beijing also aims to reduce flaring in onshore oil and gas extraction to zero during this period.
The country aims for the annual use of coal mine gas to reach 6bn m³ by 2025 and collection rates of associated gases in oilfields to reach "international advanced levels" by 2030, without providing comparitive figures. Coal mining is the single largest source of methane emissions in the country, at 39pc in 2014, the last publicly available figure. The comprehensive capture and utilisation rate for manure from livestock and poultry will reach 80pc by 2025, rising to 85pc by 2030, according to the plan. Manure is often disposed of in ways which can lead to significant emissions of methane.
The methane plan says China will rely on the "construction of laws and regulations, technological innovation and application, statistical accounting, monitoring and supervision" to reduce methane emissions.
But the government may implement pilot policies by taking into account different characteristics of different regions, suggesting controls may not be the same across the board.
The methane plan also aims to address methane emissions control alongside energy and food security, suggesting any further measures will also have to take these into account.
China's peak emissions target before 2030 involves mainly energy-related CO2 emissions while its carbon neutrality target has a wider scope, covering economy-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Over half of global methane emissions stem from human activities in three sectors. These include fossil fuels, accounting for 35pc of human-caused emissions; waste, which accounts for 20pc; and agriculture, which accounts for 40pc, according to the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) initiative.