Emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from oil and gas infrastructure could be stamped out within the next 10 years, industry experts said.
Speaking at the Reuters IMPACT climate conference in London, they noted that technology to detect leakages from oil and gas had been ramping up in the past 5 years, making mitigation feasible.
"Those technologies when deployed ... can fix the methane emissions very quickly," said Julien Perez, vice president of strategy and policy at the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, a consortium of CEOs from a dozen large oil and gas companies.
Last year, more than 100 countries pledged to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030. Methane is about 80 times more powerful at trapping heat than carbon dioxide during a 20-year timeframe.
"The launch of the Global Methane Pledge will create momentum," Perez said. "Money will flow."
Currently, oil and gas extraction, processing and distribution is responsible for 23% of global methane emissions, according to a 2021 assessment by the World Meteorological Organization. Landfills account for about 20% of emissions, and roughly one-third come from the agricultural sector.