Super Pollutants

Emissions from fossil fuel production and transport — especially methane released from oil and gas wells and the processing and transport of natural gas — account for a great deal of climate-warming pollution. Oil and gas companies also leak, flare, and vent billions of dollars’ worth of natural gas, containing methane, in the U.S. every year. CATF has advocated that the U.S. EPA and Department of the Interior require common sense and low-cost measures to reduce methane pollution and waste.

CATF’s global methane work seeks to significantly slash as well as prevent increases in methane emissions from oil and gas development. In countries where development is likely to begin or expand, CATF aims to ensure that environmental impacts are minimized through the application of modern technologies and practices and the regulatory knowledge developed over the last 20 years. CATF’s current international work focuses on three key areas where significant progress can be made in preventing and reducing emissions: Canada, Mexico, and South America. In addition, CATF is working with the Arctic Council, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, and other international bodies to make methane emission reductions a focus of their work.

While the oil and gas industry is the number one industrial source of methane pollution, reductions in other sectors are not only economically justified but absolutely necessary to realize necessary emission reductions. Substantial emissions also come from dams, coal mining operations, landfills, wastewater treatment, and manure management operations. CATF has worked to develop an understanding of methane emissions from these other sources including technologies and best practices and the barriers to using them, and we work to develop and implement policy and regulatory solutions that can be applied both in the U.S. as well as internationally.

Currently, CATF is working to reduce black carbon emissions from the shipping sector and is committed to securing a legally binding phase out of the use of heavy fuel oil (HFO) in Arctic waters. This effort is particularly critical given the rapid rate of warming in the Arctic and the numerous threats that the use of HFO as bunker fuel poses to the Arctic region.

CATF’s Country Methane Abatement Tool (CoMAT) – lets countries estimate how much methane pollution they can reduce from their oil and gas industries even when they have limited information about the industry and its current emissions.