Ecologia

Lettera di Amici Della Terra, Environmental Defense Fund, Legambiente e altre sei organizzazioni europee a Dan Jørgensen, nuovo commissario europeo per l’Energia. Ecco il testo integrale della lettera

Nove organizzazioni ecologiste europee (tra queste gli Amici della Terra, la Legambiente e Environmental Defense Fund) hanno scritto a Dan Jørgensen, nuovo Commissario europeo per l'Energia Dan Jorgensen.
Al centro della lettera la richiesta di accelerare gli sforzi per la riduzione delle emissioni di metano garantendo la piena applicazione della Regolamentazione europea recentemente entrata in vigore. Il metano è infatti un composto con un potenziale climalterante 80 volte superiore alla CO2 nei primi 20 anni dall'emissione in atmosfera. Secondo l’Aie, Agenzia Internazionale dell’Energia, garantire una riduzione globale del 75% delle emissioni di metano da combustibili fossili è uno dei tre obiettivi più importanti da raggiungere entro il 2030 per seguire il percorso “net zero”.
Pubblichiamo integralmente il testo firmato anche da Monica Tommasi (Amici della Terra), Flavia Sollazzo (Environment Defense Funbd) e Stefano Ciafani (Legambiente).
 
Il testo della lettera
Mr. Dan Jørgensen
Commissioner for Energy and Housing
European Commission
B-1049, Brussels, Belgium
13 December 2024
Dear Commissioner Jørgensen,
We, the undersigned organisations, are writing to congratulate you on your designation as Commissioner for Energy and Housing – we look forward to supporting your work with constructive analysis and recommendations in the coming years.
Steering the EU’s clean energy transition, achieving ambitious climate targets and bolstering its energy security are no small tasks, especially when compounded with the continued crises in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and uncertainty caused by the results of the US election. Bold EU leadership is needed now more than ever, particularly to steer the EU’s trajectory to transition away from fossil fuels, and especially off Russian gas. The good news is that this can partially be achieved by building and maintaining momentum for our most innovative and cost-effective solutions to slow near-term warming, such as reducing methane emissions from fossil fuels.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, more than 80 times stronger than CO2 over a 20-year period. As it is a short-lived pollutant, cutting methane emissions is the fastest way to slow down climate change and avoid a global temperature increase of 0.3°C before 2050.
In addition to the enormous climate benefits, methane abatement measures couId also provide energy security and energy efficiency benefits, which can be achieved by reducing leaks, venting and flaring, and implementing methane import standards. Cutting these methane emissions globally could save roughly 267 bcm of gas from escaping into the atmosphere, enabling an existing gas source without needing to construct new import infrastructure and helping the EU to reduce its reliance on Russian gas.
The EU demonstrated impressive global leadership by adopting the Methane Regulation earlier this year, but the work isn’t yet finished. Pulling the handbrake on near-term warming and securing the maximum emissions reductions possible will require you to do three things:
1. Increase the European Commission’s political and technical support on methane to Member States: Successful implementation of the Methane Regulation will heavily depend on the designated competent authorities in member states charged with enforcing the rules. As the Regulation is the first of its kind in Europe, many competent authorities lack the necessary know-how and capacity, and so consistent application across the EU will require strong support from the European Commission.
To date, Member States have been slow designating competent authorities, detailing how they will apply obligations, and setting penalties for non-compliance, all of which lead to unhelpful uncertainty amongst certain companies. Support from the European Commission on these issues, as well as your high-level political steer in discussions with member state Ministers responsible for energy, climate and finance, will be invaluable.
2. Steer ambitious finalisation of the Methane Regulation’s import standard: The Methane Regulation agreed to the world’s first obligations on imported fossil fuels, allowing the EU to tackle the methane emissions associated with its imported fossil fuels, which are estimated to be over 5 times larger than those estimated from its domestic production.
However, the details of these rules on importers are not finalised, and will be determined in a series of forthcoming delegated and implementing acts – ensuring that these are as ambitious as possible, with a view to guarantee the quality and integrity of reported data, will be the most critical factor shaping the Regulation’s impact.
We also ask that you proactively lend your political support to defend the initial data reporting obligations starting in May 2025, which lays the foundation for future data quality and emissions intensity requirements. Despite industry allegations to the contrary, we already possess the necessary tools to track and trace volumes of gas across supply chains, many of which are already being used in complex markets such as the U.S. We ask that you reassure trading partner governments, importers, exporters, and producers of fossil fuels that supplying the necessary data is possible, and will not compromise energy security or the efficiency of global gas trading.
3. Incentivize proactive methane emissions reductions ahead of the EMR intensity standard: While 80-90% of methane emissions associated with the EU’s oil and gas consumption is due to production located outside the EU’s borders, the landmark requirements on imported fossil fuels will only be gradually finalised and phased in between now and 2030. Therefore, complementary efforts to incentivize proactive abatement and reduce non-emergency flaring could make a sizeable contribution to reducing Europe’s dependency on Russian energy imports. With a global effort to reduce methane emissions and tackle non-emergency flaring, an estimated 267 billion cubic meters of captured natural gas - more than 70% of the EU’s annual gas consumption - could be made available to gas markets and used in producing countries. The EU’s trading partners alone account for 90 billion cubic meters of gas that could be saved if all production met a 0.2% equivalent emission intensity standard.v
As the Commission develops a roadmap to phase out Russian energy imports, we urge you to include methane emissions reduction measures, which should support the implementation of the Methane Abatement Partnership roadmap launched at COP29 and the “You Collect We Buy” initiative announced at COP28. The EU is well positioned to drive
momentum for gas-capture projects in producing countries that often struggle to advance due to lack of coordination, financing, and opportunities to market abated gas. However, the EU cannot break these barriers alone, we urge the Commission to take a leadership role in fostering the broad stakeholder cooperation needed.
According to the IEA, securing a global 75% decrease in methane emissions from fossil fuels is one of the three most important goals to achieve by 2030 to follow its net zero pathway. While the EU and U.S. successfully built global awareness on methane in recent years, including through the Global Methane Pledge, the responsibility for maintaining this global momentum and translating commitments into concrete emissions reductions will largely fall on the EU’s shoulders.
This will require ambitious implementation of the Methane Regulation and its new rules on imported fossil fuels, as well as strategic support to coordinate and incentivize proactive emission reductions. Cutting methane is the lowest hanging fruit in the climate crisis, and by increasing the EU’s bold leadership in global emissions reduction, we can protect both our energy security and the planet.
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration. We remain at your disposal to provide further information.
 
Signatories [in alphabetical order]:
1. 2Celsius – Mihai Stoica, Executive Director
2. Amici Della Terra – Monica Tommasi, President
3. Clean Air Task Force – Jonathan Banks, Global Director, Methane Pollution Prevention
4. Environmental Action Germany (DUH) – Sascha Müller-Kraenner, Executive Director
5. Environmental Defense Fund – Flavia Sollazzo, Senior Director EU Energy Transition
6. Environmental Investigation Agency – Mary Rice, Executive Director
7. Fundación Renovables – Raquel Paule, Executive Director
8. Instrat Foundation – Michał Hetmański, CEO
9. Legambiente – Stefano Ciafani, President