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Why isn’t Methane included in the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism?

(Energy Post, 22 Apr 2024) Robert Kleinberg at CGEP explains why methane isn’t included in the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) which imposes a carbon tax on imported goods.

Basically, CO2 emissions are easy to estimate accurately, whereas methane emissions are not. Many methane emissions, even the largest ones, are intermittent and of highly variable duration. Gas leaks vary over many orders of magnitude, and once diffused in the atmosphere leave no local evidence of an emission. So the same set of rules cannot, in any practical way, be applied to both. Kleinberg looks at how the CBAM works, and the prospects for introducing a similar mechanism for methane. Going forward, the EU is preparing the final text of a methane reduction law to achieve the same purposes of the CBAM, dependent on new and better ways of monitoring methane emissions.

The European Union (EU-27) is a globally significant trading bloc focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, including by seeking to impose its own environmental standards extra-territorially on its trading partners.^[1] The United States, in particular, has an interest in being a supplier of reduced-emission fuels to the EU, and the two trade partners have every incentive to work together on their greenhouse gas emissions. An essential step toward working together is to have a common understanding of the science and engineering that undergirds rational policymaking.

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Energy Post, 22 Apr 2024: Why isn’t Methane included in the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism?