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By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

Hello!

Here’s a riddle: I’m a potent greenhouse gas, it’s true,

But in the fight for net zero, I have my role to do.

Found in cow burps and other sources too – what am I?

Our focus today is a Reuters exclusive story on the European Commission’s proposal to impose methane emissions limits on EU gas imports from 2030, a move that would put pressure on the bloc’s international fossil fuel suppliers, such as the U.S., to cut leaks of the potent planet-warming gas. Click here for the scoop by Reuters European climate and energy correspondent Kate Abnett.

The proposal, seen by Reuters on Wednesday and dated Oct. 23, comes in response to pressure from the European Parliament and some big EU countries including France in ongoing talks on a law addressing methane emissions inside the bloc.

Methane is the main component of the natural gas countries burn in power plants and to heat homes. It is also a greenhouse gas and the second biggest cause of climate change after carbon dioxide, with a potent warming effect when it escapes into the atmosphere.

Here’s what’s on my radar today:

• Ford, UAW reach tentative deal to end strike
• A podcast on how to spur investments in greener power grids
• Reimagining Antarctica’s ancient pre-ice landscape

Methane (CH4) is the main component of the natural gas countries burn in power plants. A gas storage facility run by Conexus Baltic Grid in Incukalns, Latvia. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

The new proposal would require foreign gas suppliers to curb methane emissions into the atmosphere from leaky oil and gas infrastructure.

“Failure to comply shall be disincentivised, taking security of supply considerations into account,” said the draft proposal, made during EU negotiations on the upcoming methane-cutting law.

If the draft proposal is approved, the Commission would set out the details in an “implementing act” at a later date, it said. A Commission spokesperson declined to comment on the draft.

In the short term, methane has a higher planet-warming effect than CO2, but it leaves the atmosphere faster. Scientists say rapid cuts in methane emissions are crucial this decade if the world is to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and avoid its most devastating impacts.

A U.S. State Department official also welcomed the “robust” proposal, saying it would leverage the power of gas buyers to “cut methane emissions upstream,” which could make a “substantial contribution” to global efforts to reduce the potent greenhouse gas.

The U.S. and EU led the creation of the Global Methane Pledge at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in 2021 in an effort to slash methane emissions 30% by 2030. It currently has nearly 150 participating countries.

The planet-warming gas has also reared its head in Brazil, as a study by the environmental group Climate Observatory showed that food production in the South American country, the world’s biggest beef and soybean exporter, accounted for 74% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2021.

Climate Observatory’s calculations factored in deforestation and changes in land use, methane emissions from cow burps, as well as energy use and waste stemming from agricultural and industrial processes.

“This report should be read by agribusiness representatives and the government as a wake-up call,” said Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory. “It demonstrates, beyond any doubt, that agribusiness will determine whether Brazil is a climate hero or villain.”

Of the 1.8 billion tons of greenhouse gasses emitted from Brazil in 2021 to make food, nearly 78% was associated with beef production, including emissions linked with deforestation for livestock farming and pollution from beef packing plants, the study found.

Abiec, a lobby group of large beef producers in Brazil, did not have an immediate comment.

Read more about how methane from food waste contributes to global warming and why small efforts to stop it can make a big difference in a Reuters graphics explainer here.

International Finance Corporation (IFC) Managing Director Makhtar Diop, London, United Kingdom. Henry Nicholls/Pool via REUTERS

Keith Norman, chief sustainability officer at U.S.-based chemicals manufacturer, Lyten, shares his thoughts on whether methane can be repurposed for good:

“For the energy industry to fully support the call by COP28 president Sultan al-Jaber to accelerate an industry-wide commitment to reach near-zero methane emissions by 2030, it will need to embrace a spectrum of innovative solutions. 

“One front is improving mitigation – such as sensor technologies and AI for monitoring, detecting and responding to leaks.

“Another new and important innovation frontier is capturing and repurposing methane.

“The carbon from methane enables a lithium sulfur-based electric vehicles (EV) battery that will have two times the energy density of lithium-ion counterparts while eliminating the need for nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite. That same carbon can also reduce the hydrocarbons used to make plastics by up to 50%.

“It’s difficult to fully eliminate methane. Creating processes to convert it into valuable feedstocks creates an entirely new ecosystem to further net zero efforts. We look forward to collaborating with others inside and outside of the energy industry to reduce methane emissions as well as on ways to repurpose it into high-value materials and applications.”

The European sustainable fund industry suffered another quarter of outflows in the three months to end-September as investors worried about economic uncertainty and regulatory changes, data provider Morningstar said in a report. 

Investors pulled 20.5 billion euros ($21.7 billion) from funds in the European Union’s lower sustainability classification, while net inflows into the higher classification were their lowest since early 2021, the Morningstar report said. Click here for our Reuters summary on the report.

Violinist Simon Garcia plays an adaptation of Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” concertos as a screen shows an image of parched earth in Madrid, Spain. REUTERS/Susana Vera

Today’s spotlight highlights the impact of environmental changes and how it transforms our world, whether it’s through artistic expression in music in Spain or scientific exploration in Antarctica.

A Spanish music director has adapted Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” to the grim reality of global warming, adding prominence and drama to the summer concerto while shortening the other three, and he believes the Italian great would not mind.

The original opus was composed exactly 300 years ago. The adapted version will premiere on Tuesday at Madrid’s popular EDP Gran Via venue, coinciding with the global Climate Action Day.

It will be accompanied by projected images of wildfires and other effects of climate change, such as drought. “I would love the audience to feel really bothered at some point by becoming truly aware of what is happening,” composer and producer Hache Costa told Reuters, who has made the sheet music freely available for anyone to play.

Illustration of a landscape the size of Belgium in Wilkes Land, East Antarctica, if the ice sheets covering it were lifted away. Stewart Jamieson, Durham University/Handout via REUTERS 

Antarctica has not always been a desolate land of ice and snow. Earth’s southernmost continent once was home to rivers and forests teeming with life.

Using satellite observations and ice-penetrating radar, scientists are now getting a glimpse of Antarctica’s lost world. Researchers said they have detected buried under the continent’s ice sheet a vast ancient landscape, replete with valleys and ridges, apparently shaped by rivers before being engulfed by glaciation long ago.

The researchers said the landscape appears to date to at least 14 million years ago and perhaps beyond 34 million years ago, when Antarctica entered its deep freeze.

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