Pressure mounts on EU to delay stricter methane rules
‘Most energy exporters to the EU will be unable to meet its methane regulation importer requirements on current timelines.’
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‘Most energy exporters to the EU will be unable to meet its methane regulation importer requirements on current timelines.’
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BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — The European Union (EU) came under pressure Friday to pause new rules to reduce planet-warming methane emissions, with some member countries and the United States arguing they put the bloc’s energy supplies at risk.
Importers of oil and gas will be required to monitor and report on methane emissions from January under a 2024 reform aiming to reduce leaks of the powerful greenhouse gas.
But a dozen of the European Union’s 27 nations are calling for a three-year delay in implementation, saying the rules would narrow Europe’s supplier base at a time when energy markets are still reeling from the Iran war.
That would undermine “the competitiveness of the European industry and the affordability of energy for all households,” Czech deputy prime minister Karel Havlicek told a meeting of EU energy ministers in Luxembourg.
The Czech government is one of the authors of a letter urging the European Commission to postpone implementation also signed by Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden among others.
The call was backed by the United States, the EU’s biggest oil supplier.
“The EU methane regulation poses a direct threat to the EU’s energy security and price stability,” Washington’s envoy to the EU, Andrew Puzder, wrote on social media.
“Most energy exporters to the EU will be unable to meet the EU methane regulation importer requirements on current timelines,” he added.
Brussels has offered some flexibility, allowing countries to temporarily withhold fines for non-compliance, but is otherwise sticking to its guns.
