The first-ever EU regulation to reduce methane emissions has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. This is the last step before the legislation enters into force, according to Environmental Defense Fund Europe's release.
The regulation, which will be officially referred to as EU 2024/1787 sets strict new curbs on emissions from fossil fuel operations across EU Member States. Tough standards will also apply to imports from the many oil, coal and natural gas exporters that supply to the EU.
Six months after the regulation enters into force, EU member states need to appoint national authorities to oversee compliance with the regulation by EU oil, gas and coal operators, as well as importers and independent verifiers. In addition, the European Commission will present secondary legislation, detailing the methodology EU importers will have to follow when it comes to reporting methane emission intensities.
After tackling domestic emissions, the same monitoring, reporting and verification obligations will be applied to EU importers from January 2027. This means that for all contracts concluded with exporters to the EU, EU importers will have to demonstrate that producers are measuring, monitoring, reporting and verifying methane emissions in line with the requirements of the regulation.
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